This autumn, audiences across the UK will have the rare opportunity to experience a landmark season of Sudanese cinema. Voices and Visions of Sudan – A Cinematic Reflection, curated by Sudanese film curator Talal Afifi and presented by the Almas Art Foundation, Aya Films, and Maona Art. The programme brings together films that span generations, genres and geographies to illuminate the cultural life of Sudan at a moment of historic transformation.

The programme traces the legacies of pioneering figures such as Gadalla Gubara, often described as the father of Sudanese cinema, through to urgent new works by contemporary filmmakers confronting the realities of revolution, displacement, and social upheaval. Together, these films present Sudanese cinema as a living archive: one that resists erasure, foregrounds oral memory and visual poetry, and offers alternative visions of community, identity, and futurity.

Cinema in Sudan: Conversations with Gadalla Gubarra 

The film builds up a portrait of a great Sudanese filmmaker, Gadalla Gubara. At eighty-seven, he is one of the pioneers of cinema in Africa. He has recently lost his sight but continues to film life in Sudan as no one before him.Through his oeuvre, Gadalla reveals to us a Sudan both mysterious and misunderstood. Despite censorship and lack of financial support over sixty years, he has produced cinema that is independent and unique in a country where freedom of expression is a rare luxury. The film Conversations with Gadalla Gubara retraces the struggle of a man who received the 2006 Award for Excellence for his career at the Africa Academy Awards, Nigeria.