TALK: FOCUS ON SUDANESE CINEMA

Pictured above: Suzannah Mirghani and the cast and crew of Al-Sit, shot in Sudan with a 99% Sudanese team, many of whom were first time actors.

Join Amjad Abu Alala and Suzannah Mirghani for a discussion about Sudanese cinema. In conversation with SAFAR curator Rabih El-Khoury, they’ll explore how their recent films question traditional vs modern values through their intergenerational stories, and how the Sudan Film Factory is bridging the memory of the past with the hope of the future through supporting this new generation of filmmakers. Talal Afifi, a film curator, creative producer, director of Sudan Film Factory and the president of Sudan Independent Film Festival (SIFF) since it was launched in 2014, will also share his thoughts via a pre-recorded video.

Amjad Abu Alala is a Sudanese director and producer currently residing in the UAE. His debut feature You Will Die at Twenty was released in 2020, he is the director of a number of short films, and he now works as Head of the Programming Committee at Sudan Independent Film Festival.

Suzannah Mirghani is a writer, researcher, and independent filmmaker. Being of mixed race Sudanese and Russian backgrounds, she is most interested in stories that examine the complexity of identity, and is the writer, director, and producer of Al-Sit (2020), Grand Prix winner at the 2021 Tampere Film Festival (Academy Award qualifying) and Canal+ Award winner at the 2021 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.