Talking About Trees (2019)
★★★ — Talking About Trees (2019)
Sudan is not a country that tends to feature heavily in conversations about world cinema, and that absence is itself part of the story that Talking About Trees (2019) sets out to tell. Directed by Suhaib Gasmelbari, the film follows four members of the Sudanese Film Group, Ibrahim Shaddad, Suliman Mohamed Ibrahim Elnour, Eltayeb Mahdi and Manar al Hilo, as they attempt to reopen the Halfaia Cinema, a long-derelict open-air theatre in Khartoum. The Sudanese Film Group was founded in 1989, though its members had studied film abroad as far back as the 1960s and 70s, returning to a homeland that would, under successive authoritarian governments, systematically dismantle the cultural infrastructure they hoped to build. By the time Gasmelbari's cameras arrive, the struggle to screen so much as a single film in public has become a kind of Sisyphean task, weighted down by bureaucratic obstruction and decades of enforced silence.
Gasmelbari's film is a co-production spanning Chad, France, Germany, Qatar and Sudan, produced through Agat Films & Cie / Ex Nihilo alongside Made in Germany Filmproduktion and Göi-Göi Productions. It is the sort of international partnership that independent documentary filmmaking often requires when the subject matter is politically sensitive and the home country's own film industry has been all but extinguished. For those interested in cinema coming out of the wider region, Lingui, the Sacred Bonds (2021) and Lac (2019) offer worthwhile companion pieces, both sharing Chad as a country of production and giving some sense of the broader filmmaking landscape in that part of Africa. The 94-minute runtime is modest, and Gasmelbari works in an observational mode, letting his subjects lead rather than imposing a conventional narrative structure. Whether that approach serves the material well is something the review below addresses directly.
The four protagonists are not actors in any conventional sense but they carry the film entirely on their own terms, men shaped by exile, political persecution and an almost stubborn refusal to give up on the idea that cinema matters. Their old films, many censored or lost, surface in fragments throughout, and those glimpses carry a particular charge. For anyone curious about how documentary can function as both cultural preservation and quiet political act, this sits alongside films like Nom Tèw (2009) and Next Goal Wins (2014) as examples of the form doing something beyond straightforward reportage. Gasmelbari himself is of Sudanese origin, and that connection to the material gives the film a texture that a more detached filmmaker might have struggled to find. What results is a portrait of four men at once funny and weary, polished in their thinking but operating in a world that has left them with almost nothing to work with.
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.
What stays with me, thinking back on it, is that image of the four of them sitting together in the dark, the projector temperamental, the audience nonexistent, and yet the conversation flowing as if the film were already playing. For me, that encapsulates both the film's real strength and its occasional frustration as a viewing experience: the human story is right there, warm and worth your time, but you do find yourself wishing the film around it had been cut a little tighter. I would still point anyone with an interest in African cinema, or in the politics of cultural memory, firmly in its direction. Some films earn their place simply by existing, and this is one of them.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2019 | Watched: 2025-09-08
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Talking About Trees (2019) on YouTube
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