Add to Queue: Suzannah Mirghani’s Sudanese Cinema
A selection of curated media lists from our global community
words – suzannah mirghani
location – doha, qatar
photography – ammar nassir & mohamed elbashier
The damage that has befallen Sudan’s film history – first through abject neglect followed by deliberate destructive intent – is all the more tragic when one learns that Sudan once boasted an impressive film archive. Overlay text in Suhaib Gasmelbari’s short documentary, Sudan’s Forgotten Films, informs the audience [in the present tense in 2017] that “Sudan has one of the biggest national film archives in Africa. Many of the more than 13,000 films are the only existing copies.” With a vicious nationwide war currently ravaging the country, what remains of this archive and what has been lost? We do not know.
There are many things we do not know about the history of Sudanese cinema. There are few scholarly studies and little verifiable information. While some colonial films made in or about Sudan can be viewed online – through the British Film Institute’s Colonial Film Archive, for instance – many works still cannot be accessed because of a lack of digitisation or institutional restriction. Similarly, whilst some classic postcolonial works made by Sudanese filmmakers can be accessed unofficially on YouTube or officially through the restoration efforts of the Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art, a vast array of films has been lost, damaged or simply forgotten through lack of archival record.
But there is hope. The concept of a Sudanese cinema has recently enjoyed a renaissance, largely due to the consistent and concerted efforts of Sudanese filmmakers both at home and in the diaspora. The many successes of contemporary Sudanese films – especially the award-winning, record-breaking and headline-grabbing Khartoum [2025], Goodbye Julia [2023] and You Will Die at 20 [2019] – have revived domestic and international interest. It has been heartening to observe how film festivals and cultural institutions all around the world have started screening Sudanese works across their programs. Perhaps more importantly, these programs often feature both classic and contemporary Sudanese films, inviting audiences to experience these works side by side, often for the very first time. These programs have given audiences a unique opportunity to compare and contrast new and old versions of the country, its artistic concepts and its physical landscapes, drawing parallels between different generations of Sudanese filmmakers. What unites Sudanese filmmakers across time is their insistence on creating their work against a barrage of political and economic obstacles, resulting in a relatively small but greatly admired body of work.
Below is a selection of this great work – spanning the colonial, postcolonial and contemporary periods of filmmaking in Sudan. It is futile to recommend films that cannot be found by interested viewers, so my selection is predicated upon ease of access, with links to view shared for each selection below.
01_They Planted A Stone [1953, short fiction, directed by Robin Carruthers]
Watch this film to be outraged by a racist, patronising piece of British imperial propaganda. During the making of this film, Sudan as a state was administered and controlled by the British and Sudan as a concept was defined and visualised through a British Orientalist lens. Completely scripted and melodramatically acted, this film was bafflingly categorised as a “documentary” and was even nominated for an Academy Award in 1954. The film can be viewed online for free at the Colonial Film archive.
02_Africa, the Jungle, Drums and Revolution [1979, short experimental documentary, directed by Suliman Mohamed Ibrahim Elnour]
Watch this film to encounter a new generation of Sudanese filmmaker. A member of the Sudanese Film Group [and a subject of Suhaib Gasmelbari’s 2019 documentary, Talking About Trees], Elnour created this project as his diploma film, and graduated from the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography [VGIK] in Moscow in 1979. The work focuses on Soviet impressions of Africa, and is available on the Criterion Channel, depending on geoblocking.
03_Jamal [A Camel] [1981, short experimental fiction, directed by Ibrahim Shaddad]
Watch this film to experience Sudanese experimental filmmaking at its finest: playful but packing a powerful political punch. Ibrahim Shaddad received a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service [DAAD] to study in West Germany, but ended up at the Film Deutsche Hochschule für Filmkunst Potsdam-Babelsberg in East Germany in 1964. The film has become a firm favorite of film program curators all over the world, and is available on the Criterion Channel, depending on geoblocking.
04_Beats of the Antonov [2014, feature documentary, directed by Hajooj Kuka]
Watch this film to be simultaneously entertained, educated, and enraged by the daily mix of music, life and war in Sudan’s Nuba mountains. Featuring the outspoken musician Alsarah, Hajooj’s film awakened domestic and international audiences to the diversity of Sudanese communities, stories and experiences, making a big impact on the festival scene. Watch extended episodic clips of the film here.
05_Sudan’s Forgotten Films [2017, short documentary, directed by Suhaib Gasmelbari]
Watch this film to be informed about the state of Sudan’s film archives. A tragedy in 25 minutes, the film follows two unsung heroes as they engage in a daily Sysyphean attempt to record stacks of film reels, many unnamed and undated. Suhaib’s film was a call to action in 2017 – a plea to preserve an already disintegrating archive that has almost certainly been destroyed in the ongoing war. Suhaib’s film was a call to action in 2017 – a plea to preserve an already disintegrating archive that has almost certainly been destroyed in the ongoing war. An Al Jazeera Witness documentary, this film can be freely accessed online.
06_Iman [2017, short fiction, directed by Mia Bittar]
Watch this film to encounter recent Sudanese concerns revolving around religious extremism and the fracturing of traditionally tight-knit communities. Although narrative fiction, the film is based on research and interviews conducted by the UNDP. The work is directed by Mia Bittar, a Lebanese-Sudanese filmmaker, alongside a Sudanese cast and crew, and can be watched in full here.
07_You Will Die at Twenty [2019, feature fiction, directed by Amjad Abu Alala]
Watch this film to be dazzled by contemporary Sudanese filmmaking. A work that shook the Sudanese film scene, it awakened domestic and international audiences to the beauty of Sudanese narrative cinema. This was the first Sudanese film to ever screen at the Venice Film Festival and will be forever recorded in history as Sudan’s first ever submission to the Academy Awards. The film can be watched online on various platforms, depending on geoblocking.
08_Khartoum Offside [2019, feature documentary, directed by Marwa Zein]
Watch this film to delve into a world of outstanding and outspoken Sudanese women. The documentary depicts the struggles of women football players as they attempt to play the game in a politically charged patriarchal setting. Premiering at the 2019 Berlin international Film Festival, Marwa Zein boldly positions gender and race front and center of Sudanese storytelling. This film can be viewed on the Shahid platform, and continues to screen at international film programs.
09_This is Us…This is Sudan [2021, directed by Mohammed Kordofani]
Watch this film to fall in love with a peaceful and prosperous Sudan. Commissioned by the Media Communication Unit of the short-lived transitional government, the film was screened at the 2021 Paris Conference, and acted as a calling card to attract international stakeholders to invest in the resource-rich country. Advertising the creation of a new Sudan, the film announced a national vision of peace, prosperity and political stability. The magical cinematography depicts Sudan as a place of diverse but harmonious people and landscapes.
10_Goodbye Julia [2023, feature fiction, directed by Mohammed Kordofani]
Watch this film to experience Sudanese cinema in its most exquisite contemporary form. Boasting a high production value, Kordofani, joined by a Sudanese and international team, created this technically superb and cinematically engaging narrative fiction. It can be watched online on various platforms, depending on geoblocking.
For more exclusive content and recommendations on what to read, watch or listen to, sign up to our free newsletter.
A note: We regularly update our site as part of our efforts to reduce the environmental impact of our digital estate. The global emissions from the digital industry are on a par with those from the aviation industry, at almost 2% of total global emissions. What’s worse, this is increasing year on year. In an effort to lessen our impact, we regularly compress and archive previous features as we update our site with new content – something we consider best practice and hope to see more of across the industry. For further information, feel free to get in touch.