Sudan, Remember Us
Hind Meddeb’s heartfelt documentary captures the spirit of a younger generation, hoping that the oppression in Sudan will finally end.
Image courtesy of Tape Collective.
This remarkable film was shot in Sudan in the period between 2019 and 2023 when civil war broke out there afresh and it concludes with the statement that what was happening there at that time was largely ignored by the international media. That we now have Sudan, Remember Us to fill that gap and to do it so vividly makes this an important film. Even so, it is the quality of the filmmaking that leads to this being such a very special work. In recent years there have been many distinguished documentaries about the suffering of people living under oppressive regimes, but I can recall no other film that captures so effectively the spirit of young people who in conditions like this are brave enough to take to the streets. Furthermore, this is a work made with an artistry that is only evident in the best documentaries.
Sudan, Remember Us is very much Hind Meddeb's film in that she is its director, writer and photographer. Born in Paris in 1978, her father was Tunisian and her mother of Moroccan and Algerian descent. That background has encouraged her strong interest and empathy when it comes to youngsters and others fighting for freedom in those regions, while on home ground she was co-director of Paris Stalingrad (2016) a film about asylum seekers. But here Khartoum is absolutely central and this latest work of hers grew out of her being present in that city in 2019. That was the year when the Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir fell after thirty years in power. It looked possible then that in time a citizens government could take over, even if in working towards that goal the military would be in control for a transitional period. But instead in October 2021 General al-Burhan set up a coup d’état proclaiming himself Interim President, an act that would lead to conflict and eventually in 2023 to the Third Sudanese Civil War. The hopes of those who had protested in 2019 were increasingly shown to be a mirage.
For her film Hind Meddeb places screen centre four of the young people whom she encountered in 2019, namely Maha El Faki, Shajan Suliman, Ahmed Muzamil and Khattab Ahmed. At the outset voice-overs make it clear that she would when away continue to correspond with them thus establishing a special closeness throughout the four years covered by the film. We do indeed frequently see these four at intervals throughout but they are only fully identified with their names alongside pictures of them in the film’s closing moments. Yet not knowing for sure which is which (albeit that Muzamil is more specifically picked out when we hear of him being arrested and later released) is not something that proves to matter. That is because Sudan, Remember Us sees all four as representatives of their generation, Sudanese ready to act and to pin their hopes on the country becoming democratic. The political events of the period would shape their lives and the society of which they were part, but by choosing to view events from the viewpoint of Sudan’s young people Hind Meddeb captures the spirit and energy that can fuel youthful rebellion in a political context. Furthermore, she renders it in a way that links this directly with the culture of Sudan. Songs expressing their hopes for Sudan keep recurring, walls become sites for slogans and memorial portraits and Meddeb's camera captures the bloodstream of the people, the pride in being Sudanese, the importance of art and poetry. As time passes and it becomes all too apparent that what had seemed possible in 2019 is not coming about, the film makes clear the extent of the violence and oppression that followed. Nevertheless, just as it brings back to mind the hopes of the Arab Spring that started in 2010, the film is full of light and colour in its first half when optimism was at its highest. Here the attitude of the people in the streets is at once inspiring and desperately sad because the viewer knows that the 2019 revolution offered a promise which, believed in at the time, would all too soon be shown to be illusory.
But, if that suggests that Hind Meddeb’s film is an increasingly downbeat chronicle, to take that view would be to take aboard less than the full story. The youngsters featured may see their expectations unrealised and some will come to find themselves no longer living in Sudan but they do not let pessimism take over. In embracing their country's culture and past struggles, they see Sudan as having a history of resistance and, if the revolution in which they participated failed, they believe that, like earlier ones, it set an example. As one person declares it is not a case of winning or losing, it is what you do that counts. They continue to believe that, as one placard puts it, ‘Souls cannot be killed let alone ideas’. Instead of despairing they anticipate that the future will see fresh revolutionary movements and ask that when it happens their own example far from being forgotten will be an inspiration. In that way the film's title takes on its true meaning: Sudan, Remember Us.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Maha El Faki, Shajan Suliman, Ahmed Muzamil, Khattab Ahmed, and the voice of the poet Chaikhoon.
Dir Hind Meddeb, Pro Abel Nahmias, Screenplay Hind Meddeb, Ph Hind Meddeb, Ed Gladys Joujou.
Echo Films/Blue Train Films/My Way/Tounès Production-Tape Collective.
79 mins. France/Tunisia/Qatar/Lebanon/Egypt. 2024. UK Rel: 27 June 2025. Cert. 12A.
