Talking About Trees: A Deep Dive Into Story and Style

Talking About Trees unfolds as a quiet yet profoundly stirring elegy to Sudanese cinema and the broader cultural landscape it inhabits. The documentary’s premise—four veteran filmmakers reuniting to revive a dilapidated Khartoum movie theater—might seem modest, but Suhaib Gasmelbari’s lens captures something far more resonant: a meditation on memory, exile, and the resilience of artistic spirit under political and social duress.

What sets Talking About Trees apart from many contemporary documentaries is its deeply personal narrative woven into the collective history of Sudan. Ibrahim Shaddad, Suliman Mohamed Ibrahim Elnour, Eltayeb Mahdi, and Manar al Hilo represent not just four filmmakers but a generation of Sudanese artists who were dispersed by the grip of authoritarianism and civil strife. Their journey to reclaim the Halfaia Cinema is simultaneously a literal and metaphorical attempt to resurrect national identity through the shared spaces of storytelling and communal experience.

Gasmelbari’s film eschews conventional documentary modes of heavy narration or didactic exposition, instead choosing the rhythms of everyday life and the gentle ebb of conversation. The result is a film that feels both intimate and expansive, a tribute to the enduring power of cinema as a cultural touchstone.

Box Office and Industry Impact

Though Talking About Trees did not achieve blockbuster status, its reception was significant within the festival circuit and among cinephiles invested in African and diasporic cinema. The film’s accolades—including the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlinale—helped propel Sudanese cinema onto the global stage after decades of near invisibility.

Its impact extends beyond commercial metrics, fostering renewed interest in Sudanese film heritage and inspiring younger filmmakers to explore their own narratives against a backdrop of political repression. The documentary catalyzed dialogues within Sudan’s nascent cultural sectors about preservation, access to cinema, and the role of art in social change.

• Ignited international recognition for Sudanese cinema
• Highlighted the urgent need for restoration and preservation of Sudanese film archives
• Stimulated cultural conversations on art and censorship
• Encouraged emerging filmmakers in Sudan and the diaspora
• Boosted visibility of Sudanese stories on global platforms

Production Challenges and Constraints

Creating a documentary centered on Sudanese film pioneers was fraught with practical and political obstacles. Sudan’s decades-long restrictions on artistic freedom and censorship presented an environment where public screenings and film production were near impossible.

Gasmelbari, operating between exile and homeland, navigated these constraints with subtlety. Filming in Khartoum required delicate negotiations with authorities and a keen awareness of the risks facing his subjects.

The filmmakers’ own histories of exile added layers of complexity to production logistics and narrative framing.

The film’s aesthetic—its unhurried pace and minimalistic style—reflects these constraints, turning limitations into a strength by focusing on the quiet dignity and persistence of the protagonists rather than overt spectacle.

• Filming under political surveillance and censorship
• Limited access to archival materials and film prints
• Logistical hurdles due to Sudan’s unstable infrastructure
• Balancing narrative intimacy with the need to represent broader social realities
• Managing the filmmakers’ personal histories of displacement and exile

Why the Film Still Matters

In an era dominated by blockbuster spectacles and digital ephemera, Talking About Trees asserts the enduring necessity of cinema as a public and communal experience. It reminds us that film is not merely entertainment but a medium of memory, identity, and resistance.

For Sudan, a country where cinema was once vibrant but became systematically marginalized, this documentary stands as a testament to cultural survival. It challenges the erasure imposed by decades of turmoil and opens a window onto a creative tradition too often relegated to the margins of global film history.

Moreover, the film resonates globally as a story of artistic perseverance in the face of adversity, a narrative that continues to find relevance in many contexts where freedom of expression is threatened.

Editing Choices and Rhythm

The editing in Talking About Trees underlines its contemplative tone. The film’s pacing is deliberately measured, allowing moments of silence and reflection to carry emotional weight. Scenes linger on subtle interactions—smiles, glances, the dust motes floating in a sunbeam—crafting a tactile sense of place and time.

Rather than employing rapid cuts or voiceover exposition, the editors let conversations unfold naturally, with pauses that invite the viewer to inhabit the filmmakers’ quiet persistence. This restrained approach foregrounds the rhythms of daily life and the weariness of age, embedding the audience within the lived reality of the protagonists.

The film’s structure balances present-day efforts to reopen the cinema with archival footage and recollections, using editing to weave a tapestry of Sudan’s cinematic past and hopeful future.

Historical Context and Release Landscape

Sudan’s cinematic history is marked by fluctuating fortunes, from the flourishing cultural scenes of the 1960s and 1970s to the suppression under successive military regimes. The founders of the Sudanese Film Group, featured in the film, were themselves products of this golden era who faced exile and the collapse of institutional support for filmmaking.

Released in 2019, Talking About Trees arrived amid a period of political ferment in Sudan that culminated in the 2019 revolution. Its timing was poignant: a call to reclaim cultural spaces just as the nation was on the cusp of historic change. The film thus intersects with broader narratives of Sudanese identity, freedom, and the reclaiming of public life.

Internationally, the film contributed to a growing appreciation of African cinema’s diversity, challenging reductive portrayals of the continent by foregrounding a story of artistic agency and resilience.

Symbolism and Motifs

The titular "trees" serve as a quietly powerful symbol throughout the film. Referencing a cherished line from a Sudanese poet, the trees embody endurance, rootedness, and the passage of time—qualities mirrored in the filmmakers themselves.

The Halfaia Cinema stands as another potent motif: a physical embodiment of cultural memory and communal gathering now decayed but not forgotten. Attempting to reopen this space is a metaphor for reviving suppressed histories and reclaiming public spheres in a fractured society.

Repeated imagery of light filtering through dusty windows, the flicker of old film projectors, and the act of sharing stories in intimate settings reinforces themes of illumination, transmission, and collective memory.

Genre Reinvention or Subversion

While Talking About Trees is a documentary rooted in the tradition of observational cinema, it subtly subverts genre expectations by blending political urgency with poetic intimacy. Unlike activist documentaries that wield direct confrontation, Gasmelbari’s film opts for quiet resistance through testimony and presence.

Its refusal to sensationalize hardship or dramatize conflict aligns it with a lineage of films that respect the dignity of their subjects and trust viewers to engage with nuance. This approach revitalizes the documentary form, emphasizing emotional resonance over didacticism.

Furthermore, the film’s self-reflexive engagement with cinema’s role in society adds a meta-textual layer, inviting audiences to consider not just the story but the medium itself as a site of cultural preservation and activism.

Wrapping Up

Talking About Trees stands as a landmark in Sudanese and African documentary cinema—an elegy, a manifesto, and a quiet act of defiance. Suhaib Gasmelbari’s patient, empathetic direction brings to life the struggles and hopes of a generation determined to reclaim their cultural heritage through the power of film.

Its understated beauty and profound historical resonance make it essential viewing for anyone interested in the intersections of art, politics, and memory. As a document of perseverance against erasure, the film offers not just a window into Sudan’s cinematic past but a beacon for its future.

Want more Film History articles like this?