Why we picked it – A group of friends who enjoy films and want to show them to a wider audience. Well, that’s Film on Friday really isn’t it?

Synopsis – Four ageing Sudanese filmmakers goof about recreating a scene from Sunset Boulevard. It is clear that they are film enthusiasts. They tour villages screening movies from a laptop at impromptu venues and their audience’s reaction to Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times shows the universal power of cinema. The four try to reopen a derelict open-air cinema in Khartoum. Along the way they discuss their film education abroad, the repression they have lived through and the bureaucracy and creaking infrastructure they are trying to overcome.

The film – Cinemas were very popular in Sudan, but were closed after the military coup in 1989. Two of the four, Ibrahim Shaddad and Sulemein Ibrahim, won prizes at global film festivals in the 1970s and 1980s. Only scratchy clips survive but they are phlegmatic about their lost work. This is a sad, but charming, homage to enthusiasm about film and the enduring friendship of the four amigos.

Director: Suhaib Gasmelbari, Sudan 2020 93 mins (PG) Cast: Ibrahim Shaddad, Manar Al Hilo, Suleiman Ibrahim and Altayeb Mahdi. Cinematography: Suhaib Gasmelbari

Links imdb entry Guardian review Financial Times review Interview with Suhaib Gasmelbari

Trivia -The title “Talking About Trees” is taken from a line in a Brecht poem: “What kind of times are these, when to talk about trees is almost a crime, because it implies silence about so many horrors?” You can read the full poem, in German and in translation, here.