Sudan’s war re-enacted in exile

Daniel Nelson

Khartoum is a quietly beautiful, tragic film.

The concept is simple: five citizens talk about how they fled their homes after the coup that blocked the democracy movement before becoming embroiled in the grotesque, unforgivable War of the Two Generals that’s still raging and has uprooted at least 10 million people.

The filmmakers had started work on the pro-democracy the year before the coup that forced them and the interviewees to flee to East Africa.

Their testimonies are important in their own right but the four Sudanese and one British director’s sensitive, imaginative treatment lifts it to another level altogether.

Lokain and Wilson were child bottle-collectors (“Adults are the fools and we are the kings”), Jaward a pro-democracy activist (“I’m scared of not seeing my home again”), Khadmallah a tea stall owner from the Nuba Mountains (“You’ll talk about all the terrible things that happened?” “I’ll put it out for everyone. This is my truth”), Majdi a civil servant (“I have done things I’m not proud of”).

What brings their words to life is the use of the “green screen” technique, which entails using a green or blue backdrop that can be removed and replaced with another image or video. So as the five describe and act out their feelings and experiences — their everyday lives, their fears in the protests, coup and clampdown, their escape — they suddenly are speaking in a representation of the room or street they are remembering.

They also use each other as actors, representing, for example, the other person in a recollected conversation or a confrontation with soldiers.

It’s not raw, real news footage, but it’s powerful and moving. Re-telling these stories gives a vivid picture of their lives. In some cases the incidents are so awful that recounting them forces tears. They have to be consoled by the crew.