In 2022, four Sudanese filmmakers, along with a British director-writer, began filming the lives and dreams of five very different citizens in Khartoum: Street boy Lokain (12) and his best friend Wilson (11) embark on a mission in Khartoum’s rubbish dumps to buy two beautiful shirts Khadmallah (28) a single mum and tea vendor engages her daily clientele in gossip and cardamom coffee whilst studying math to start her dream business Jawad (30) is a Sufi Rastafarian resistance volunteer who rides a motorcycle and protests for a civilian government against the military Civil servant Majdi (45) escapes office life by racing pigeons with his son.
When filming started, the Sudanese were faced with a military leadership that had brought down the previous civilian government. Soon, however, war broke out between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, displacing over ten million people.
The filmmakers and participants escaped to East Africa but continued their innovative cinematic storytelling, combining animation, green screen reconstructions, and documentary ‘dreamscapes’ to tell their stories.
Filmed on location with donated iPhones, the four emerging Sudanese filmmakers (Anas Saeed, Rawia Al Hag, Brahim Snoopy and Timeea M. Ahmed) capture the stark realism of one of Africa's great cities as it is consumed by turmoil and war.
