Film Screening at The Africa Institute: Talking About Trees by Suhaib Gasmelbari

The Africa Institute in Sharjah will screen the critically acclaimed Sudanese film Talking About Trees, directed Suhaib Gasmelbari. I saw this film in February in Berlin where it won the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary. Since then, the film has been travelling to several film festivals around the world and winning hearts everywhere.

The film is about the remaining members of the ‘Sudanese Film Club’ who are trying to revive an old cinema. It is charming, touching and also quite funny.

It is one of my favourite films this year, so if you are in or near Sharjah, I strongly recommend you don’t miss it. The film will be followed by a discussion with four members of the Sudanese Film Club featured in the film.

The screening is free to attend and you can register here.

Talking About Trees
Director: Suhaib Gasmelbari
2019 | 93 mins | Sudan | Arabic with English subtitles

Suleiman and three further members of the ‘Sudanese Film Club’ have decided to revive an old cinema. They are united not only by their love of cinema and their passionate desire to restore old film stock and draw attention to Sudanese film history once more, but also by the fact that they have all enjoyed a film education in exile.

Tirelessly, they try to get the cinema’s owners on their side and make the place operational again, but repeatedly find themselves up against considerable resistance. In the meantime, they sit together and talk about the past – including their experiences of persecution and even torture as oppositional artists. They also read out old letters written while in exile and dream of a Sudan in which art and intellectual thought can be free.

‘We are smarter than them, but not as strong,’ is how they unanimously summarize their situation. It is in laconic moments such as these that the viewer is able to perceive the friendship, as well as the bond and ideological solidarity that exists in the struggle for common ideals.

The film will be followed by a panel discussion between the four members of the Sudanese Film Group - Ibarhim Shaddad, Manar Al Hilo, Suleiman Mohamed Ibrahim, and Altayeb Madhi, and Dr. Yousif Aydabi, Advisor at the Dr. Sultan Al Qasimi Center for Gulf Studies.