Discoveries from Sudan World Cinema

Tayba is an intimate portrait of the filmmaker’s aunt as she, from the repose of old age, recollects how she overcame the stigma of divorce and forged an independent life as a woman alone.

The weekly wrestling tournaments of the Sudanese Nuba migrants in Khartoum usually take place between Northern and Southern Nuba men. The sport helps them strengthen their ethnic identity in a hostile urban environment. Nuba wrestling has developed into a unique mixture of traditional culture and modern sport. The film also illustrates the lives of some of the wrestlers who live in the shanty town.

Eltayeb Mahdis film ARBA'A MARAT LIL ATFAL depicts the everyday life at that time in facilities and schools for children with physical or mental disabilities. Children in class are being shown where amongst other things art, woodwork and speaking are being taught but also the hustle and bustle in the schoolyard as well as physiotherapy and the handling of walking aids are being described.

Documentary about the war in South Sudan.

Hikmat Shafiq, a Sudanese Copt in his fifties, lives with his wife, Ester, in Atbara, considered the largest gathering of Sudanese Copts. The couple faces financial problems following the application of the Sharia law (Islamic law) in 1970, and the impact of such implementation reaches its climax in 1989 after the Islamists' coup d'état. Torn between Ester's desire to stay and her husband's desire to emigrate, the film depicts the brutal reality for Copts in one of the darkest eras in Sudan's history.

After years of isolation following a series of betrayals, a man finds his quiet life disrupted by the 'processions' of his past. When an old, unfinished love resurfaces, a fleeting misunderstanding threatens to destroy his fragile peace, forcing him to choose between the safety of his solitude and the hardest test of the heart.

Located in the central part of the Blue Nile Basin, the Gezira Irrigation Scheme is the biggest gravity irrigation scheme under one management in the world, counting an area of almost 900,000 hectare. Fertile soils and sufficient water resources were the reason for its establishment more than 90 years ago. But today the scheme’s efficiency is low due to a deteriorated infrastructure and institutional and financial limitations. Strong efforts are needed to revive the food basket of Gezira in Sudan.

The events and characters of the film are inspired by the reality of the armed conflicts in Darfur, a pivotal Arab issue located at the heart of Western political and media attention. The film seeks to present an objective artistic message to Western and Arab viewers.

THE SALON is the story of a unique beauty salon in Khartoum which hides a secret; it doubles as an underground space for women in danger. Run by the charismatic Abeer who herself fled domestic abuse, the salon is a space where women who are ‘on the run’ arrive from across Sudan seeking advice, sanctuary and pathways. It also does fabulous hair and nails.

The well-known members of the legendary Blue Stars band around today's Khartoum streets and to their performances.

More than 65 cinemas were closed thirty years ago, and more than 100 years in the film industry without films, this documentary is about the history of cinema in Sudan after recent successes in the independent film industry.