Institute History

  • 2025 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Forced to leave Sudan for East Africa following the outbreak of war, five citizens of Khartoum — a civil servant, a tea lady, a resistance committee volunteer, and two young bottle collectors — reenact their stories of survival and freedom through dreams, revolution, and civil war.


In 2022, Sudanese filmmakers Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, and Timeea Ahmed joined with British director Phil Cox to begin chronicling the lives of their five participants. After a military coup, a war broke out that displaced over 10 million people, including the filmmakers and their subjects. Khartoum boldly demonstrates determination and invention borne out of necessity as the film team adapts their project to their new reality. Blending footage shot before their escape with imaginative green screen sequences guided by their participants, the filmmakers create a safe space for Majdi, Khadmallah, Jawad, Lokain, and Wilson to share and process their experiences of conflict and exile, but not without moments of hope and joy. The result is a singular, emotional, and personal journey into a devastating conflict that has gone underreported in the West.—Basil Tsiokos


Available in person. Also available online for the public (January 30–February 2) and credentialed press and industry (January 29–February 2).

Screening Details

As you use our Online Archives, please understand that the information presented from Festivals, Labs, and other activities is taken directly from official publications from each year. While this information is limited and doesn't necessarily represent the full list of participants (e.g. actors and crew), it is the list given to us by the main film/play/project contact at the time, based on the space restrictions of our publications. Each entry in the Online Archives is meant as a historical record of a particular film, play, or project at the time of its involvement with Sundance Institute. For this reason, we can only amend an entry if a name is misspelled, or if the entry does not correctly reflect the original publication. If you have questions or comments, please email [email protected]