This film is currently unavailable
Talking about Trees
Beautifully shot documentary about four members of the 'Sudanese Film Club' who decide to revive an old cinema.
Director: Suhaib Gasmelbari
Overview
Suliman and three further members of the 'Sudanese Film Club' have decided to revive an old cinema. They are united not only by their love of cinema and their passionate desire to restore old film stock and draw attention to Sudanese film history once more, but also by the fact that they have all enjoyed a film education in exile. Tirelessly, they try to get the cinema's owners on their side and make the place operational again, but repeatedly find themselves up against considerable resistance. In the meantime, they sit together and talk about the past - including their experiences of persecution and even torture as oppositional artists. They also read out old letters written while in exile and dream of a Sudan in which art and intellectual thought can be free. 'We are smarter than them, but not as strong,' is how they unanimously summarise their situation.
This beautifully shot feature debut, winner of the Berlinale Best Documentary Award, couldn’t be timelier for Sudan.
Related
Emotion Pictures: Yearning and Repressed Desire in Melodrama Emotion Pictures: Yearning and Repressed Desire in Melodrama
Short documentary 2025 19 mins Director: Maha Albadrawi and Henry Barnes
Writer Nadia M Oliva tracks the development of the melodrama genre and how it plays out across film, TV and online.
Frida Kahlo & Tina Modotti Frida Kahlo & Tina Modotti
Documentary 1983 30 mins Director: Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen
Immerse yourself in the work of Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti - icons of the Mexican Renaissance.
Amy! Amy!
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1980 33 mins Director: Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen
Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen's essay film commemorating pilot Amy Johnson's pioneering solo flight to Australia in 1930.
Rhianna Dhillon's favourite Coming of Age films Rhianna Dhillon's favourite Coming of Age films
Short documentary 2025 11 mins Director: Maha Albadrawi and Henry Barnes
Rhianna Dhillon selects her favourite Coming of Age films available now on BFI Player.
Bushman Bushman
Documentary 1971 75 mins Director: David Schickele
Neglected since its release in 1971, Bushman follows a Nigerian student in San Francisco but is interrupted by the arrest of its leading man.
How to Film... a Swimming Pool How to Film... a Swimming Pool
Short documentary 2025 17 mins
Cinema history demonstrates swimming pools are awash with symbolic possibility – artist Justin Anderson shares some tips on how to film them
Souad Souad
Drama 2021 102 mins Director: Ayten Amin
Double lives and double standards in Egypt, as a teenage girl contends with religion and social media to define herself.
Mona Lisa Mona Lisa
Gangster 1986 100 mins Director: Neil Jordan
An ungainly cockney chauffeur navigates the seedy streets of London, gradually falling for the elegant and mysterious prostitute who is his passenger.
Showgirls Showgirls
Melodrama 1995 126 mins Director: Paul Verhoeven
Reviled upon its release, now reclaimed as a cult classic - one can only submit to the trash-tastic delights of Paul Verhoeven's erotic disasterpiece.
The Outrun The Outrun
Drama 2024 118 mins Director: Nora Fingscheidt
Saoirse Ronan gives a bracing performance as a young recovering alcoholic returning home to Orkney in this moving adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s memoir.
Birdy Birdy
Drama 1984 120 mins Director: Alan Parker
Alan Parker’s elliptical, ethereal adaptation of the acclaimed, ‘unfilmable’ novel by William Wharton, about a boy who dreams of flying.
The Florida Project The Florida Project
Drama 2017 112 mins Director: Sean Baker
Anora director Sean Baker's visionary portrait of life in America’s underbelly, featuring an Oscar-nominated turn from Willem Dafoe.
The Streetwalker The Streetwalker
Drama 1976 86 mins Director: Walerian Borowczyk
A salesman becomes obsessed by an icy prostitute against the backdrop of a hellish Paris, in this arthouse erotica from Walerian Borowczyk (The Beast)