Filmed before and during Sudan’s latest civil war, Khartoum is a collaborative hybrid documentary that follows five residents from the capital city into exile. Lokain and Wilson, two young bottle collectors, dream of new shirts and soccer glory; Jawad volunteers with the resistance; Khadmallah serves tea on a street corner; Majdi tries to protect his family while working for the regime. When the war erupts, the filmmakers and their subjects flee to Nairobi; here, they work together to convey their experiences, discovering new forms of collective expression through green screen, animation, and performance.
Directed by Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim “Snoopy” Ahmad, Timeea M. Ahmed, and Phil Cox, Khartoum is born of necessity, intimacy, and invention. As the protagonists reenact the day war began — playing themselves and each other — the film’s authorship is absorbed into the community, and what begins as five threads becomes a shared act of resistance, healing, and remembrance. Winner of the Peace Film Prize at Berlinale and the Gilda Vieira de Mello Award at FIFDH Geneva.
Oct 7 & 11: Q&A
Presented by
Community Partner
UK/Sudan/Germany/Qatar
2025
In Arabic with English subtitles
Graphic violence, racist content
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Tom Rhodes, Anne Sundberg, Bryn Mooser, Justin Lacob, Laura Choi Raycroft, Judy Kibinge, Susan Mbogo, Emma Hindley
Producer
Giovanna Stopponi, Talal Afifi
Screenwriter
Phil Cox
Cinematography
Anas Saeed, Ibrahim Snoopy, Waleed Alaa, Yousef Jubeh, Phil Cox
ANIM
Philip K. Good
Editor
Yousef Jubeh
Original Music
James Preston
Anas Saeed
Anas Saeed a Sudanese media maker who started working as a video journalist for the independent media house Ayin Network. He has produced several reportage works for international media that focus on human rights issues affecting different communities across Sudan.
Rawia Alhag
Rawia Alhag is a Sudanese filmmaker and screenwriter now based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her work focuses on women’s and children’s issues, shedding light on the experiences and struggles of Sudanese people both within their communities and in the diaspora. She directed the award-winning short film Out of Coverage (2024), which won Best Foreign Film at the Juba Film Festival.
Ibrahim Snoopy
Ibrahim Snoopy is a Sudanese filmmaker and cinematographer who has worked for ARTE, the BBC, and The Washington Post, as well as producing music videos, commercials, and shorts. Notable works include the feature documentaries Khartoum Offside (2019), which won Best Documentary at the Carthage Film Festival; From Argentina to Sudan (2023); and the award-winning shorts Serotonin (2022) and Journey to Kenya (2021).
Timeea Mohamed Ahmed
Timeea Mohamed Ahmed is a Canada based award-winning Sudanese director, editor, and producer working across documentary, experimental films, and digital media. Best known for Khartoum (2025), which premiered at Sundance and received multiple Awards at the 75th Berlinale. His other notable works include Is It War? (2025) and Saddari (2023). In addition to film, Timeea is actively engaged in advocacy and commercial media production.
Filmography: Saddari (2023); Is it War? (2025)
Phil Cox
Since 1998, Phil Cox has been the co-director of award-winning indie film collective Native Voice Films, and he has directed and shot over 30 films for television and cinema. His recent features as director and writer include The Bengali Detective (2011), Love Hotel (2014), Betty They Say I’m Different (2018), The Cleaner (2020), and The Spider-Man of Sudan (2022). He is the recipient of the British Grierson Award, the Rory Peck Award, the Hinzpeter Award, and the Bayeux Calvados Award for his work in Sudan.
Filmography: We are the Indians (2005); The Bengali Detective (2011); Love Hotel (2014); Betty: They Say I’m Different (2017); The Cleaner (2021)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Late Fame
Based on a novella by Arthur Schnitzler (Eyes Wide Shut) this is a sly, poignant comedy about vanity and art from director Kent Jones, starring Willem Dafoe as a mailman belatedly acclaimed for a book of poetry he wrote in his youth.
Memory of Princess Mumbi
In 2093, a filmmaker arrives in the African village of Umata, where he meets Princess Mumbi, a woman torn between love, legacy, and the future of storytelling. It's a fabulous genre-blending fable about memory, invention and cinematic resistance.
Lessons of Darkness
Werner Herzog's unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power.
Beau Travail
Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Claire Denis' transfixing Beau Travail is set in East Africa. Sgt Galoup (Denis Lavant) reflects on his time in the French Foreign Legion, and the impact of the handsome Sentain (Gregoire Colin).