Ibrahim, Manar, Suleiman and Altayeb are the members of the Sudanese Film Club founded in 1989. Unable to make films for years, they have decided to revive an old cinema. They are united by their love of cinema, their passionate desire to restore old films and draw attention to Sudanese film history, and also by the fact that they all experienced a film education outside Sudan.

Their plans to renovate the outdoor cinema come up against bureaucracy, lack of cash and a general fear of upsetting the government.

In the meantime, they sit together and talk about the past and the history of Sudanese cinema, including their experiences of persecution as oppositional artists. They recall their times of exile and dream of a Sudan in which art and intellectual thought can be free.

Suhaib Gasmelbari was born in 1979, in Sudan, and lived there until the age of 16. He studied film in France at the University of Paris 8 and worked as a freelance cameraman and editor for Al Qarra, Al Jazeera and France 24. He has written and directed several short films, both fiction and documentary. Talking about Trees is his first feature-length documentary. He is also a researcher with a special focus on audio-visual archives. Through his research, he was able to find some long-lost Sudanese films and he actively participates in international and local projects for saving and digitizing Sudanese films, including those of Ibrahim Shaddad, Suleiman Mohamed Ibrahim and Altayeb Mahdi.

Available from Friday 28 August 6:30pm (BST) – Sunday 30 August 6:30pm (BST)

Please join us for a live discussion about the film on Friday 31 July at 8:30pm

After you have watched the film, we would appreciate if you could answer a few short questions about your viewing experience via this survey

Trouble booking? Be in touch to let us know and we will do what we can to help!