Talking About Trees
Panorama 2019
FRA/SDN/DEU/TCD/QAT 2019
by: Suhaib Gasmelbari
Talking About Trees
Panorama 2019
FRA/SDN/DEU/TCD/QAT 2019
by: Suhaib Gasmelbari
Talking About Trees
Panorama 2019
FRA/SDN/DEU/TCD/QAT 2019
by: Suhaib Gasmelbari
Talking About Trees
Panorama 2019
FRA/SDN/DEU/TCD/QAT 2019
by: Suhaib Gasmelbari
Feb 10, 2019Suliman Elnour, Suhaib Gasmelbari, Ibrahim Shaddad
The director (in the middle) and his protagonists.
Panorama – Talking About Trees
Feb 16, 2019Suliman Elnour, Ibrahim Shaddad, Suhaib Gasmelbari, Manar Al Hilo, Eltayeb Mahdi
The director with his protagonists.
Panorama – Talking About Trees – Closing Gala – Glashütte Original Documentary Award
Feb 16, 2019Suhaib Gasmelbari, Marie Balducchi, Eltayeb Mahdi, Ibrahim Shaddad, Manar Al Hilo, Suliman Elnour
The director, the producer and the protagonists.
Panorama – Talking About Trees – Closing Gala – Glashütte Original Documentary Award
Talking About Trees
World Cinema Fund
Panorama – Talking About Trees
Suliman 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 summarise 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.
Suhaib Gasmelbari puts the history of Sudanese cinema at the centre of his film and at the same time sheds light on the current situation in a country shaken by ongoing crises.
by
Suhaib Gasmelbari
France / Sudan / Germany / Chad / Qatar 2019
Arabic, English, Russian
Documentary form93’ · Colour
World premiere
Born in Sudan in 1979, he lived there until the age of 16. He studied film at the Université Paris 8 in France and worked as a freelance cameraman and editor for Al Qarra, Al Jazeera and France 24. He has written and directed many short fiction films and documentaries. Talking About Trees is his first feature-length documentary. During his research into Sudanese audio-visual archives he found some films believed to have been lost and actively participated in national and international projects to save and digitise them.
Filmography (selection)2012 Oda Nagam (Ode To My Feet); short film
Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019
AGAT Films & Ciewww.agatfilmsetcie.com/
Wide House