Sudanese Cinema: Talking About Trees

In 1989, the members of the Sudanese Film Group saw their dream of establishing a Sudanese cinema free from state censorship dashed by the military coup and the repressive dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir. Now, reunited after decades of distance and exile, filmmakers Ibrahim Shaddad, Manar Al Hilo, Suleiman Mohamed, Suliman Elnour, and Eltayeb Mahdi seek to revive that dream by reopening an outdoor cinema in Omdurman.

Bringing together several of the filmmakers whose work appears throughout this programme, Talking About Trees offers a moving return to the lives behind those films. Their memories, humour, and enduring commitment to cinema reveal what political repression interrupted, but could not erase.

As they struggle to make cinema public again, their uphill battle, alongside images from the remarkable and daring films they created, reveals both the beauty and brutality of Sudan, and the persistence of a cinematic tradition carried across decades.