"At this moment before the war, anything is possible in Sudan," says Khadmallah, a Khartoum resident hailing from the Nuba Mountains. She is riding to work on a donkey cart, smiling to herself in the sun amongst five strangers who all gently shake, or rather dance, with the rhythm of the donkey's gallop. "We're a people in revolution, and there is hope."
Khadmallah is one of the five protagonists of Khartoum, a poetic, genre-bending documentary capturing life in the Sudanese capital after the 2021 military coup and the longing for exile after the outbreak of war in 2023. A collaboration of four Sudanese filmmakers from different backgrounds and British director-writer Phil Cox, this remarkable film tells a story of boundless dreaming, heartbreak, and courage through the humor and humanity of its protagonists. It will see its European premiere at the Berlinale on Feb. 15, 2025.
Khadmallah is a tea vendor and single mother, providing for her daughter Rita through the "little corner" in which she welcomes those who like to gather in the community while drinking tea and Sudanese coffee infused with ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and clove. Her story is captured by media maker and video journalist Anas Saeed, beautifully showing her perseverance amidst the difficult circumstances she faces as a working-class woman of a tribe considered "African" instead of Arab.Filmmaker and screenwriter Rawia Alhag follows best friends Lokain and Wilson, two young boys collecting bottles in Khartoum's rubbish dumps who dream of the cool t-shirts they see at the souq (market). While they do not have much material wealth, they have cultivated a deeply moving once-in-a-lifetime friendship.
"On my way to work, I used to see many children collect plastic in the streets to make money," says Alhag. "I used to hang out with Lokain and Wilson on the outskirts of Khartoum and meet their families until our relationship became strong enough to start filming. It was the best adventure for me to film with these children."
Jawad volunteers at his local resistance committee. With his motorcycle, he acts as a medic in the protests against the military coup, fighting for the freedom and democracy he has never experienced. "Jawad has all these contradictions and all this love that Khartoum represents," says director and video editor Timeea M. Ahmed about his protagonist. "He's a Sufi, and at the same time, he's a Rasta[farian]; these two do not generally meet; he might be the first and last person I've seen like this."
Finally, Majdi is a civil servant with a passion for pigeon racing. Although he speaks critically of Omar al-Bashir's 30-year dictatorship and the two war generals currently terrorizing the country, Majdi lived a sheltered life in Khartoum before the war. "I chose Majdi because he represents the upper social class that is often overlooked," says filmmaker and cinematographer Ibrahim Snoopy. "I thought that it's also vital to represent someone who's not very engaged with the community on a specific level, to show these differences in the classes and be able to dissect the issues that were undergoing in Khartoum."
The film's initial idea — to make a cinematic poem about Khartoum — came from Cox. Having worked in Sudan since 2004, he discovered the Sudan Film Factory, run by Talal Afifi, in 2021 and was impressed with the filmmakers' talent and "their exceptional approaches." He managed to get them equipment and resources, but when fighting broke out between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces, the funds meant for filming were used to bring the filmmakers to safety.
Photo courtesy of Native Voice Films.
"I would never recommend working with more than one director. But this film had a bigger picture. People were dying. People were losing everything. There was a different reason to do this, so there wasn't a clash of egos. Everyone knew why they were making it." - Phil Cox
In Nairobi, they embarked on a new journey guided by the material filmed in Khartoum, but with the goal of expanding a document of the city into a film of resistance. The filmmakers and producers who had decided to continue the project spent another five months getting the protagonists to safety. By the time they all reached Nairobi, there was no money left.
Photo courtesy of Native Voice Films.
"Our poverty made us creative," says Cox. "There was the realization that the stories were inside each character. Everybody jumped in, and we began the green screens."
The green screens became an incubator for each participant to share their experiences and memories, acting them out with the help of the group and bringing the protagonists' stories to life with an animator. Khartoum, which relies on reportage to share moments before the war, thus becomes a collage of intimate emotion and national history, interweaving archival footage and music with gruesome stories and tender acts of care and support.
"The hardest part was to let them tell their stories without [re-]traumatizing them," says Snoopy. "We managed that by going through therapy before shooting. We had to ensure that we healed and passed on that healing." "[It] became a cathartic process for both directors and participants," adds Cox. "It was a real collaboration."
Photo by Philip K Good.
"Every time someone told their story, there was a sense of relief. They're eager to share their experiences. Everyone has a different story, but the feelings are the same." - Rawia Alhag.
The protagonists barely knew each other in Khartoum but became a family in exile. "We all lived through the same war; our relationship became much stronger when we spoke and acted together," shares Alhag. "Most of us are still in Nairobi, and when we traveled to the U.S. [where Khartoum debuted at Sundance Film Festival], we met at Khadmallah's tea stall and went to the airport from there."
The pre-war scenes in Sudan are all shot on donated iPhones. "It's challenging to shoot in Sudan, whether because of the government or the people," says Snoopy. "The phones came in handy because they made us almost invisible." Khartoum invites the audience to witness the diversity of its population and sacred communal rituals, from bustling market life to traditional dance, a Sufi zikr, and a concert.
Despite the protagonists' differences in age, class, gender and background, they share an incredible ability to dream. Whether it is Majdi escaping into childhood memories while sitting at his office desk, Khadmallah transporting her daughter to the Nuba Mountains through song, Jawad stubbornly imagining a better future for Sudan, or Lokain and Wilson riding through their war-torn city on lions that protect them from adults.
Photo by Philip K Good.
Khartoum has only begun its festival rounds and will have its European premiere at the Berlinale.
Sudan has put its people through immense suffering. But it has also given them an unwavering creative spirit. Khartoum is a glimpse into this creativity. "It's not just another sad story from Africa," says Ahmed. "It shows the complex Sudan through these very interesting characters. It puts a face to the numbers, but it's also a movie you can enjoy, laugh at, and cry at."
Snoopy believes that Khartoum can inspire other Sudanese filmmakers. "Filmmaking is about creating something unique with whatever you have," he says. "It's not about having a big budget, years of experience, or fancy gadgets; it can be as simple as filming your life and community. It's just about putting out your characters' emotions and being true to your story."- Three Powerful Films From South Africa, Kenya, and Sudan Showing at Sundance 2025 ›
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