The screening on 1 December will be followed by a Q&A with co-director Phil Cox.

In 2022, Sudanese filmmakers, in collaboration with a British writer / director, an Irish Palestinian editor, and supported by indie company Native Voice Films and Sudan Film Factory with Ayin Network, began filming the lives and dreams of five very different citizens in Khartoum. Soon, however, war broke out between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, displacing over eleven million people, including everyone in the production. The filmmakers and participants escaped to East Africa. Led by the creative director, the team devised a new narrative through innovative cinematic storytelling, combining animation, green screen reconstructions, and documentary ‘dream reversions’ or ‘dreamscapes’.

The Garden Cinema View:

Khartoum was initially conceived of as a poetic account of the city told through the eyes of five inhabitants. Despite the fact that the entire cast and crew were forced to flee, and left with no access to Sudan and barely any footage, the resulting film they managed to create fulfils the initial ambition.

It's a highly original piece of filmmaking, with the team all pitching in to re-enact everyday life in Khartoum from their new, temporary home in Kenya, with the help of devices such as green screens and animation. It's perhaps a more reflective, philosphical film as a result, in which the five Sudanese citizens, drawn from such different walks of life and suddenly thrown together, are able to reflect on their identities and the fate of their country. Despite the trauma and bleakness of war, re-enacting scenes from their past allows the protagonists to celebrate of the minutiae of everyday life in a way that is both joyful and cathartic.