Talking about Trees

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 not only by their love of cinema and their passionate desire to restore old films and draw attention to Sudanese film history once more, but also by the fact that they all enjoyed 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 “he who cannot be named.” (The film was made before the recent overthrow of Omar al-Bashir).

In the meantime, they sit together and talk about the past and the history of Sudanese cinema, including their experiences of persecution and even torture as oppositional artists. They recall their times of exile and dream of a Sudan in which art and intellectual thought can be free. ‘We are smarter than them, but not as strong, is the conclusion.

Even if their plans may be unfulfilled, the strong solidarity and humour of the four no longer young men, and their new recruit, Hana, do give hope for the future.

Premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival (Panorama) 2019

Winner Berlin International Film Festival  Panorama Audience Award and Glashutte Original Documentary Award 2019

Winner Istanbul International Film Festival FIPRESCI Prize (International Competition) 2019

2019 / 94 min / Cert PG
Sudan / France / Germany / Chad / Qatar
Original language Arabic with English subtitles

Week Commencing 31st January

Week Commencing 7th February

Week Commencing 14th February

Week Commencing 21st February

Week Commencing 28th February Also on BFI Player and Curzon Home Cinema

Week Commencing 6th March Also on BFI Player and Curzon Home Cinema

Week Commencing 13th March Also on BFI Player and Curzon Home Cinema

Week Commencing 20th March Also on BFI Player and Curzon Home Cinema

Suhaib Gasmelbari was born in 1979, in Sudan, and lived there until the age of 16. He studied film in France at the Université 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.

Filmography

2012 ODA NAGAM (Ode To My Feet) (short film)
2017 SUDAN’S FORGOTTEN FILMS (TV Series documentary)
2019 TALKING ABOUT TREES

'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 world’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 charming…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.’

★★★★

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 group’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

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Video interview with the director (in English and German)

Suhaib Gasmelbari on the film's origins: BFI Online

Interview with Suhaib Gasmelbari in The National

Suhaib Gasmelbari wins the documentary prize at El Gouna Ahram online

Suhaib Gasmelbari receiving the Variety MENA award

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