'Great movies expand the world of cinema, and the Sudanese director Suhaib Gasmelbari’s documentary “Talking About Trees” does so in a way that looks daringly ahead while also uniting with a great pre-cinematic tradition.'
Richard Brody, The New Yorker
★★★★
‘This poignant and witty documentary focuses on four directors whose careers were stalled by a military coup thirty years ago.
A rather lovely poetic portrait of male friendship, cinephilic obsession and elegant dignity.’
Cath Clarke, The Guardian
★★★★
‘As another year’s Oscars beckon and the worldÂ’s most feted directors line up to be feted once more, this sad, charming homage to some of their less celebrated colleagues could hardly be a better preface.
‘Profound — a tribute to the strange communal magic of cinema, and what happens when it becomes invisible.’
Danny Leigh, Financial Times
★★★★
‘A portrait of comradeship, four friends that found each other through film. The cinema gives them a purpose, but what they have together is far more valuable than a common cause. What’s the point of putting on screenings if they risk losing the very friendships they wish to foster?
Director Suhaib Gasmelbari does a wonderful job of capturing the intimate moments… it’s tenderness and solidarity that keeps the brotherhood strong.
… the four friends are genuinely charmingÂ…Ibrahim Shaddad is wonderfully quirky. One moment he’s staging scenes for his next political short film, the next he’s giving a guided tour of the cinema to a camel. He’s a natural performer with a quick wit, which is all the more impressive when he details his detainment by security forces.’
Owen Richards, The Arts Desk
★★★★
'Gentle, observational documentary about a group of filmmakers bringing cinemagoing back to Sudan...where young generations have never known cinemagoing as a communal experience.
Through the sadness and frustration, their sense of humour never wavers. Nor does the underlying certainty that what they do matters.
The film demonstrates the tender brotherhood that exists between four old friends...
Sophie Willard, The List
‘Intoxicating passion, playfulness and intimacy drive this film from start to finish.’
‘Four local filmmakers attempt to revive cinema-going in Sudan in this playful, inspiring documentary. An honest, inspiring achievement.’
Maria Nae, Little White Lies
★★★★
It’s a fascinating documentary about friendship and the dream of a Sudan in which art and intellectual thought can be free. There’s now a glimmer of hope. With a lot of humour and fervour’
Morning Star
★★★★
‘Full of quiet courage and subversive wit, this reminds filmgoers everywhere to take nothing for granted.
Empire
★★★★
‘Poignant...Absorbing’
Total Film
★★★★
"It may start as a crusade, but it turns into a subtle portrait of comradeship..The subject may be cinema, but the film focuses on the unspoken bonds of hardship and brotherhood."
Owen Richards, The i
★★★★
“Gasmelbari expertly captures the daily struggles of the Sudanese film club in an unassuming manner, by simply allowing the groupÂ’s words and deeds speak for themselves, with little to no interaction from the director himself.”
“This feature is a reflective take on what it must be like to be told that the very medium that allows you to create and thrive can no longer exist where you live.”
Amaliah Sara Marmon-Halm,The Upcoming
“A quiet and contemplative look at artists forced to face the reality that their work can no longer exist where they live.”
“For those who have the option of actually watching a film on the big screen yet prefer to stay glued to Netflix, Talking About Trees is a telling true story of what happens when such an option expires for good.”
Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter
“Talking About Trees” is…imbued with a generosity of spirit, that gives much-deserved recognition to four older Sudanese filmmakers whose battle to bring cinema-going back to Sudan is the immediate focus of this superb work.”
“Unfailing artistry”
“Gasmelbari’s confident visuals…neither prettify nor exoticize…His shots are honest and quietly beautiful, glorying in capturing these extraordinary men and their ability to persevere through bitterness thanks to the centrality of cinema in their lives, and the spirit of friendship that binds them together.”
Jay Weissberg, Variety
“The jewel of the Middle Eastern selection was Suhaib Gasmelbari’s Talking About Trees.”
“Talking About Trees is the rare Middle Eastern crowd-pleaser: a film with a big heart and defiant politics that establishes Gasmelbari as one of the hottest new talents in the region.”
Joseph Fahim, Middle East Eye
"It is really a film as well that speaks to all of us about what cinema means to us; about the beauty of seeing a film as an audience, of experiencing it collectively, rather than watching it on our iPads, rather than watching it on our cellphones; that the importance of having that with us is so vital,”
Jay Weissberg giving the Variety MENA award to Suhaib Gasmelbari
