Khartoum is an extremely powerful, if sometimes repetitive, insight into the horrors of the Sudanese Civil War and the lives it tore apart.
Directors: Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed, Phil Cox
Genre: Documentary
Run Time: 78′
Sundance Film Festival Premiere: January 27, 2025
Release Date: TBA
Detailing the destructive history and consequences of the ongoing Civil War in Sudan, Khartoum is an incredibly personal documentary that manages two things with resounding success. Most importantly, directors Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, Timeea Mohammad Ahmed, and Phil Cox manage to effectively recreate the atmosphere and aesthetics of this deadly warzone through unique, artistic dramatisations featuring real-life figures who tell their stories with staggering honesty.
This gives the documentary an extremely personal dimension, with these five individuals’ lives serving as a microcosm for the Sudanese as a collective. Secondly, Khartoum also manages to be very pragmatic and educational in its depiction of the facts, offering all the necessary context for those without prior knowledge of the conflict to fully understand the stakes.
Khartoum centers around five individuals who have been forced to evacuate from Sudan following the outbreak of a Civil War between the new civilian government and the existing military forces. The documentary isn’t afraid to go into sickening details about the acts of violence committed by both sides of this conflict, but it’s much less interested in taking a political stance than it is in exploring how the backdrop of this warfare has affected the Sudanese community. Above all, the film is an examination of humanity and how the passage of time can distort our memories of the place we call home.
The first thirty minutes of Khartoum are undoubtedly its strongest. These filmmakers do an excellent job of introducing their subjects – which include a civil servant, a tea vendor, a resistance volunteer, and two young bottle collectors – and giving their stories room to blossom without too much interference. These individuals are encouraged to tell their stories in whatever way feels most natural to them, resulting in some very honest and vulnerable narratives that effortlessly usher the audience into the minds of these citizens in a way that a more structured, refined documentary simply couldn’t. The war itself isn’t discussed in much detail until later in the film, with most of the subjects opting instead to recount stories of drinking tea with their friends or sharing music with their partner on a bus. The juxtaposition between these individuals’ romantic outlook on life and the traumatic horrors that they’ve experienced gives Khartoum a uniquely unsettling atmosphere throughout.
Unfortunately, Khartoum fails to hold onto this momentum after a while. The filmmakers soon realize that, while their subjects’ anecdotes are the heart and soul of this project, they’re not as stirring without a deeper knowledge of the politics behind the conflict. So begins a brief yet effective history lesson that details the causes behind the Sudanese Civil War and the ongoing tensions that are keeping it alive. This is done in a very engaging and accessible way, but it soon feels like Khartoum isn’t sure what kind of documentary it wants to be. It’s stuck half way between the experimental, emotional dramatizations of the first half and the more clinical, by-the-book history lessons that followed. As a result, neither method of storytelling is quite as effective.
Khartoum ultimately would have benefitted from a stricter approach to one of these two methods, as they don’t always feel cohesive with one another. There’s real filmmaking talent on display, but these directors’ evident creative vision is often hindered by their loyalty to a more typical form that doesn’t always fit this narrative. The film is a great introduction to the Sudanese Civil War for anybody who isn’t aware of this important conflict, but it falls short of being the surrealist documentary that it seemingly wants to be.
Khartoum: Movie Plot & Recap
Synopsis:
In the fallout of the Sudanese Civil War, five individuals flee their country and recount the stories that mattered most to them before their lives were torn apart.
Pros:
- Objective, educational background on the Sudanese Civil War
- First-hand stories that explore humanity and resilience in the face of oppression
- A stylish, surrealist flair that separates the film from other documentaries
Cons:
- Torn between a more conventional documentary style and its flashy, non-conformist set pieces
- Lacks focus in its second half, repeating many of the same ideas without identity.
Khartoum had its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2025. The film will be screened at the Berlin Film Festival in February, in the Panorama Dokumente strand.