Proud Sudan Filmmakers Bring Message of War and Hope to Sundance

Timeea Mohamed Ahmed, Phil Cox, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, Anas Saeed and Rawia Alhag attend the "Khartoum" Premiere during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theater on January 27, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Getty Images/AFP)
Timeea Mohamed Ahmed, Phil Cox, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, Anas Saeed and Rawia Alhag attend the "Khartoum" Premiere during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theater on January 27, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Proud Sudan Filmmakers Bring Message of War and Hope to Sundance

Timeea Mohamed Ahmed, Phil Cox, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, Anas Saeed and Rawia Alhag attend the "Khartoum" Premiere during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theater on January 27, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Getty Images/AFP)
Timeea Mohamed Ahmed, Phil Cox, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, Anas Saeed and Rawia Alhag attend the "Khartoum" Premiere during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theater on January 27, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Getty Images/AFP)

Their country's war rarely tops global news bulletins, and Sudan has never had a film at Sundance before.

So the makers of documentary "Khartoum" carried their national flag with pride and a sense of deep responsibility to their premiere at the influential US movie festival on Monday.

"The film is acting as an ambassador," said Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, co-director of the movie, which portrays five ordinary people from Sudan's capital, all forced to flee the violence.

"On a national level, everyone's looking up at us now and telling us, 'You guys should push forward to let the world know what's happening in Sudan,'" he told AFP before the premiere.

"Not begging, or in a pathetic way, but in a way that says 'Hey, hey, world, we're here.'"

For nearly two years, Sudan has been engulfed in a brutal war between its army chief and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The conflict has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million and pushed many Sudanese to the brink of famine.

The film project kicked off in late 2022, originally intended to be a "cinematic poem" of everyday life in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, filmed on location with donated iPhones.

Although a brief period of civilian rule had just been swiftly thwarted by military leaders, the filmmakers initially recorded their subjects in relative calm, following a civil servant, a tea vendor, a pro-democracy "resistance volunteer" and two young boys.

Civil servant Majdi tended to his racing pigeons. Mischievous young best friends Lokain and Wilson sifted through trash to raise money to buy beautiful shirts from the market.

"We were just this close to finishing the film -- the last 20 percent -- but then war broke out," recalled Ahmad.

Amid the chaos, "at some point we lost contact with the characters," but the filmmakers were able to locate their subjects and help them flee abroad.

Once safely outside the country, the entire film team met up for a workshop to decide whether -- and how -- to continue.

They settled on an experimental format, in which the five subjects narrated their experiences of the onset of war in front of a green screen, which would later be filled with images matching their accounts.

"Animation, interviews, dreamscape sequences, reenactments -- all of that into one big mix, which is 'Khartoum,'" said Ahmad.

Ahmad and his co-directors hope that by bringing international attention to the war, they can indirectly reach or influence those deciding on policies.

"Look at this room. There's at least 200 people. Now everyone knows the word Khartoum," Ahmad told AFP at a Sundance event.

"Let's say only one or two percent of them will look up, 'what's Khartoum, what's Sudan, what's happening?' They will spark a conversation."

Perhaps the film's most poignant moments come from young Lokain and Wilson, who laugh about how they think the warring adults are "stupid," and busy themselves with daydreams of riding a magical lion around Khartoum.

During one interview, the smiles suddenly disappear, as they describe the arrival of an RSF assault.

"There was one guy who had no head. Another, whose face was burned. Another, his body in pieces," they recall.

Ahmad, who has a background in journalism, said he hopes the film can prove more effective than his previous news work, which had come to feel "like it's a dead end" in reaching global audiences.

If it can prompt "just a simple discussion with your friend about Sudan, what's happening -- it's more than enough," he said.



Taylor Swift Wins Recording Artist of the Year Crown for Fifth Time

Taylor Swift attends an in conversation with Taylor Swift event at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9, 2022. (AP)
Taylor Swift attends an in conversation with Taylor Swift event at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9, 2022. (AP)
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Taylor Swift Wins Recording Artist of the Year Crown for Fifth Time

Taylor Swift attends an in conversation with Taylor Swift event at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9, 2022. (AP)
Taylor Swift attends an in conversation with Taylor Swift event at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9, 2022. (AP)

Taylor Swift has been named global recording artist of the year for 2024 by the IFPI, the fifth time she has won the honor from the organization that represents the recorded music industry.

The megastar's "The Tortured Poets Department" record also topped four IFPI charts - global album, global vinyl album, global streaming album and global album sales, the IFPI said in a statement on Tuesday.

It had a strong lead on the 2024 global album sales chart, which calculates physical purchases and full album downloads, with 5.6 million units. K-pop group ENHYPEN's "Romance: Untold" took the second spot with 3.4 million units sold.

Swift's record-breaking "Eras" tour, the first to surpass $1 billion in revenue, also boosted interest in her past records, with several appearing in the 2024 vinyl album and streaming album charts, the IFPI said.

"This has been a huge year for Taylor, and it has been incredible to see the extent to which fans all over the world are connecting with her superb catalogue of music," IFPI Chief Executive Victoria Oakley said.

Swift was first named IFPI global recording artist of the year in 2014 and then in 2019, 2022 and 2023, the most times for any performer since the award was introduced 12 years ago.

Presented to whoever tops the IFPI global artist chart, the prize is calculated by looking at an artist's or group's worldwide sales for streaming, download and physical music formats during the calendar year and covers their whole body of work, according to the organization.

Canadian rapper Drake and K-pop group SEVENTEEN came in second and third respectively on that chart for 2024.