Khartoum | Encounters SA International Doc Film Festival
Participant Khadmallah & daughter under a Nubian tree in a dream sequence.

Khartoum

Five lives, one city, a nation at war. A civil servant, a tea lady, a resistance committee volunteer and two street boys. Five stories from Sudan weave together in search of freedom.

Awards

Sundance Film Festival (2025) โ€“ Nominated: Grand Jury Prize: World Cinema – Documentary

Berlin International Film Festival (2025) โ€“ Nominated: Panorama Audience Award: Documentary Film

Prague One World Film Festival (2025) โ€“ Nominated: Best Film Award: International Competition Jury Award

International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (2025) โ€“ Winner: Gilda Vieira de Mello Award: Creative Documentaries Competition

International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (2025) โ€“ Nominated: Grand Prix de Genรจve: Creative Documentary

Feature
African

SA Premiere

Award Winning

Director(s):

Ibrahim Snoopy, Ahmad Timeea Mohamed, Ahmed Rawia Alhag, Philip Cox & Anas Saeed

Country:

Germany | United Kingdom | Sudan | Qatar

Year:

2025

Duration:

80 min

Language(s):

Arabic | English

KHARTOUM Poster Poster
Film Poster

In 2022, Sudanese filmmakers Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, and Timeea Ahmed joined forces with British director Phil Cox to chronicle the lives of five residents of Khartoum: Majdi, a civil servant; Khadmallah, a tea lady; Jawad, a resistance committee volunteer; and Lokain and Wilson, two young bottle collectors. When war breaks out due to a military coup, more than 10 million people are displacedโ€”including the filmmakers and their protagonistsโ€”and the film team is forced to adapt their project to their new reality. Khartoum, the resulting documentary, follows the group as they leave Sudan for East Africa, and collectively re-enact their personal stories of survival and freedom. The film’s fusion of dreams, recollections, revolutions, and civil war is unflinching in its frank depictions of violence but also warmly optimistic. With imaginative and delicately calibrated use of multimedia, this extraordinary film is at once a devastating indictment on the violence of war and displacement, and a deeply moving tribute to the resilience of the human spirit and the redemptive power of creativity.

Film Stills
The four participants of Khartoum movie in one of the animated sequences.
Street boys Lokain and Wilson collecting bottles.
Participant Khadmallah & daughter under a Nubian tree in a dream sequence.
Resistance committee volunteer Jawad on his motorbike
Khadmallah the Nubian tea stall owner on her way to way on a donkey cart in Khartoum before the outbreak of war.
Street boys Lokain and Wilson collecting bottles.
Magdi the burocrat riding a pigeon over Khartoum in one of the animated sequences.
A still from the movie which shows the filmmakers helping the participants re-enact their experiences.
Director Rawia Alhag with participants Lokain and Wilson re-enacting their war experiences.
Trailer
Previous Festivals

Berlin Int’l FF (Berlinale) (2025)

Int’l FF and Forum on Human Rights (2025)

Prague One World FF (2025)

Sundance FF