Sudan: Khartoum (2025) - Sudanese Filmmakers Turn War Into Intimate Portraits

What the report says

AllAfrica, carrying a Dabanga report by Sara Bass for Radio Dabanga, reports that Khartoum (2025) turns footage filmed in Sudan and Nairobi from 2022 onward into an experimental portrait of ordinary Sudanese lives altered by the war that began on April 15, 2023. The film follows five people as they try to move forward amid violence, displacement and uncertainty, while also addressing classism, racism and the threat the conflict poses to future hopes.

According to the report, filmmakers Rawia Alhag and Ibrahim “Snoopy” Ahmad were selected through an open call by Sudan Film Factory and Native Voice Films for short stories about daily life in Sudan. They later worked with Timeea Mohamed Ahmed and Anas Saeed, under Philip Cox’s creative direction. The featured characters include Wilson and Lokain, two boys collecting plastic bottles near Omdurman; Majdi, a civil servant with a passion for racing pigeons; Khadmallah, a tea vendor from the Nuba Mountains; and Jawad, a resistance committee volunteer.

The war disrupted the early filming, and the team members eventually evacuated, reaching Nairobi by the end of 2023. With Khartoum inaccessible, the filmmakers used green screen, interviews, reenactments, animation and candid conversations to preserve the characters’ memories, fears and dreams. The report says the production also became a space where people from different social and ethnic backgrounds worked closely together, challenging assumptions that might have remained unspoken in Sudan.

Dabanga reports that Khartoum premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, screened at Berlinale and the BFI London Film Festival, and has since appeared at international festivals and human rights events. It is available on BBC Storyville, while its directors hope it can eventually be shown in Sudan.