Talking About Trees (2019)
★★★ — Talking About Trees (2019)
Suhaib Gasmelbari's debut feature is a co-production spanning five countries (Chad, France, Germany, Qatar and Sudan), reflecting the kind of fragmented, internationally-dependent funding that characterises filmmaking from the African continent more broadly. The four subjects, Ibrahim Shaddad, Suliman Mohamed Ibrahim Elnour, Eltayeb Mahdi and Manar Al Hilo, are real figures who founded the Sudanese Film Group in 1989 after studying cinema abroad during the 1960s and 70s, returning to a country whose successive authoritarian governments had effectively dismantled public film culture. Gasmelbari shot the film during Omar al-Bashir's final years in power, a period of sustained cultural repression, which gives the documentary a particular historical charge. The film won the FIPRESCI prize at the Berlinale in 2019.
A-Z World Movie Tour Sudan Talking About Trees is a quietly powerful Sudanese documentary that tells the story of four veteran filmmakers (former classmates and passionate cinephiles) who dream of reopening an open-air cinema in Khartoum. These aren’t just artists; they’re cultural rebels, once banned by Islamist regimes for making films deemed too political, too bold, too free. Decades later, they’re still trying to keep cinema alive in a country where art has been suppressed for years. Their dedication is moving, their humour resilient, and their love for film feels genuine and deeply personal. The documentary shines when it shows clips from their old, often lost or censored films, glimpses of a cinematic history that was nearly erased. It’s fascinating to see how they used storytelling as quiet resistance, embedding social critique in narratives that dared to question authority and tradition. The film also captures the bittersweet reality of ageing artists fighting for relevance in a world that’s moved on, digitally, politically, culturally. It’s an important and eye-opening watch, no doubt, and it’s inspiring to see their persistence. But at times, the pacing drags, and the narrative lacks a stronger thread to pull you through. It’s more observational than gripping. Still, for shedding light on a hidden cinematic struggle and celebrating the enduring power of film, even when the projector won’t start and the audience is just four friends sitting in the dark, dreaming of better days.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2019 | Watched: 2025-09-08
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