Khartoum, an ode to the city amidst media blackout

Nearing the tail end of a successful festival run where more than one critic has described it as “a standout”, Khartoum premiered at the London Film Festival this week.

A highly original piece of filmmaking, it manages to encapsulate the complex nature of the war raging in Sudan, its material and psychological impact, and the rich history and beauty of the city itself.

Since the Sudanese revolution of 2019 (briefly but prominently) made the news, the country’s near-constant state of conflict has been rumbling in the background to little global interest. The film started out as a collective effort to create a panorama of life in Khartoum. Then the conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted during filming and changed the course of the project in 2023.

Native Voice Films and Sudan Film Factory had received some funding to create ten 5-minute poems on Khartoum, each one of them shot by a local director. Using iPhones for reasons of speed, cost, and safety, Cox, Palestinian editor Yousef Jubeh and four Sudanese filmmakers teamed up to tell the personal stories of five of its residents. Suddenly, they had to dig into the production funds to get both themselves and the people they were filming – young bottle sellers Lokain and Wilson, single mother and tea seller Khadmallah, resistance “volunteer” Jawad – out of the country and to safety in near Nairobi.

Re-enacting Khartoum in Kenya

Director Rawia Alhag explains how they all reconnected in Kenya to try to finish the film despite everything:

Once we were safely out, we had to try and reach out to each other again, which took quite a long time. Once we did, we had to decide on what our objective had become. Do we still want to make a film? How and what would be its purpose? We decided that we now had a responsibility as filmmakers to show the world what’s happening in Sudan, and this film would be our message.

The directors and participants had all come from different walks of life and socio-economic backgrounds, and practised different faiths. Phil Cox equates the process to that of “building a house”, where all filmmakers and “subjects” equally took part in the creative process:

In Sudan, everyone had very different backgrounds. It’s as if you were bringing together, say, two children from a housing estate in Glasgow and a banker from London. Suddenly, everyone was living and working together on this project, bringing their individual experiences and expertise to the table.

Given their lack of footage from, and access to, Sudan, the team decided to make an entirely new film using re-enactments of everyday life in Khartoum, using devices such as green screens and animation. The filmmakers workshopped the scenes with the participants who played versions of themselves. The result is a mesmerising, lyrical ode to Khartoum, very much in keeping with the poetic take they initially wanted to adopt. Instead of a piece of reportage, it’s a more philosophical film that allows its protagonists to reflect on their cultural identity (Arab or African?), their place in the diaspora, and the impact of conflict on their lives. They have described this as a cathartic process, much in the same way that similar films have used re-enactments (The Act of Killing, Ghost Hunting), although Khartoum’s crew is careful to centre the joy and humour found in moments of everyday life.

LFF audience members commented on just how articulate and politically aware the film’s protagonists are. Despite the focus on their personal lives, Rawia is keen to stress the political nature of the film’s message:

When we premiered the film in Sundance, about 30% of the questions were about the protagonists and 70% were about the political situation in Sudan. Not only has the media reported very little, that very little has mostly been wrong. They portray the conflict as a civil war, whereas it is, in fact, a proxy war. The Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF are both supported by foreign powers.

Resources siphoned out and millions displaced

Indeed, Sudan’s destruction is fuelled by foreign interests in the country’s resources and access to the Red Sea and control of strategic ports. The UAE is a key backer of the RSF, with the UK helping to shield it from accountability, whilst Egypt supports the Armed Forces that help them maintain control over regions around the Nile. The various parties are using the war to smuggle out resources such as gold and livestock.

The screening comes shortly after a number of key events in Sudan. In the last few weeks, the ICC convicted ex-Janjaweed militia man Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman — also known as Ali Kushayb. This is the first conviction from the Darfur war that began in 2003. In addition, RSF leader Hemedti was sworn in as the head of a parallel government, following the retaking of Khartoum by the Sudanese Armed Forces back in Spring 2005, threatening a Libyan-style scenario with two governments vying for power.

The internal struggle for power between the SAF and the RSF has displaced nearly 10 million people (BT News). Aside from displacement, the constant state of conflict and militarisation of the country is having crippling effects on things like money transfers, internet connection, and the entry of aid, making everyday life a struggle in all respects.