sudan, remember us

In 2022, a col­lec­tive from the Sudan Film Fac­to­ry began a project to por­tray some people in Sudan’s cap­i­tal, ini­ti­at­ed by British film­mak­er Phil Cox (Native Voice Films). In the spirit of opti­mism after the dic­ta­tor was deposed, every­day scenes were filmed with two street boys, a tea seller, an activist and an employ­ee. When war broke out, they all left the country. 

The film crew then devel­oped an unusu­al way to con­tin­ue the film project. In a studio, Lokain and Wilson, Khad­mal­lah, Jawad and Majdi recount their expe­ri­ences of flight in front of a green screen and describe their cur­rent sit­u­a­tion in dialog with the film team. 

The col­lec­tive process in the studio becomes vis­i­ble - includ­ing empa­thet­ic reac­tions as they remem­ber trau­mat­ic events. The re-enact­ments get under­laid with doc­u­men­tary and archival footage or dream-like ani­mat­ed images cre­at­ing orig­i­nal visual effects. The film avoids feel­ings of vic­tim­iza­tion and empha­sizes on the long­ing for a peace­ful Sudan. 

KHARTOUM impress­es with its par­tic­i­pa­to­ry approach, which con­tin­ues even after com­ple­tion, as Rawia Alhag con­tin­ues to look after the two street chil­dren. Anas Saeed began work­ing as a video jour­nal­ist for inde­pen­dent media organ­i­sa­tions and focus­es on human rights issues affect­ing mar­gin­alised com­mu­ni­ties in Sudan. 

Rawia Alhag comes from a back­ground in the­atre. Her work focus­es on women’s and children’s issues of Sudanese people both within their com­mu­ni­ties and in the dias­po­ra. OUT OF COVERAGE (2024, short film). 

Ibrahim Snoopy born in Beirut in 1992, is a film­mak­er and founder of the pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny In Deep Vision, Khar­toum. He has made sev­er­al award-win­ning short films and also direct­ed music videos and com­mer­cials. Since 2019 he is sup­port­ing film­mak­ers through multi-dis­ci­pline work­shops, con­sul­ta­tion and men­tor­ship. JOURNEY TO KENYA (2021), SEROTONIN (2022). 

Timeea M Ahmed is a direc­tor, editor and pro­duc­er and his work focus­es chiefly on the cul­ture and strug­gles of Sudan. Short films: SADDARI (2023), IS IT WAR? (2024). 

Phil Cox is the co-direc­tor of award-win­ning indie film col­lec­tive Native Voice Films since 1998 and has direct­ed and shot over 30 films for TV and cinema. His recent cin­e­mat­ic fea­tures as director/writer are THE BENGALI DETECTIVE (2011), LOVE HOTEL (2014), BETTY THEY SAY I’M DIFFERENT (2018), THE CLEANER (2020), THE SPIDER-MAN OF SUDAN (2022). He received inter­na­tion­al awards for his work in Sudan since 2004. Phil also teach­es and lec­tures around the world.