Sudan, Remember Us

“Here in France there’s not much talk of the war in Sudan,” says Hind Meddeb near the start of her documentary. It’s April 2023 and the government is clashing with the Rapid Support Forces militia with devastating consequences for the populace – to-date the war is continuing, whether you see it on your TV screens or not, with about 10 million people displaced and many thousands killed.

Meddeb is speaking to friends she made four years earlier, when the young people of Khartoum were hopeful about their ability to create change following the ousting of president Omar al-Bashir, who himself rose to power in a military coup 30 years before. The documentarian, who was in the Sudanese capital at that time, immerses us in the spirit of warmth and celebration as revolution seems possible, setting the sociopolitical context before charting what was to come.

Beyond its poetic and poignant ruminative bookends, Meddeb chiefly takes an observational approach, soaking up the spirit and creativity of the young people as they staged a sit-in and civil disobedience while calling for a citizens’ government as opposed to a military one. A wave of unity and feminism are to the fore as we see the protesters making their feelings felt not just with their presence but with art and poetry. Spoken-word poets and rappers lead calls and responses, artists paint in the street and groups lift their voices in song, while elsewhere a road block sign reads: “Sorry for the delay uprooting a regime”. Meddeb not only takes time to observe the general vibrancy of this collective action but to listen to the protesters as they discuss what has gone before and what comes next.

There is an intense hopefulness about the possibility of change and the future but also an undercurrent of concern regarding religious interventions and the interim military government. This, unfortunately, did not prove to be unfounded. In June 2019, on the last night of Ramadan, the Transitional Military Council carried out what became as the The Uprising, The Green Wave and The Square there’s a depressing similarity in the way oppression reasserts itself – although the fact that the protest movement continued in Sudan speaks to the unwavering spirit of those who want change.

Like recent Sundance film Khartoum – with which this would make an excellent double bill – this is a testimony to resistance in the face of repression. Beyond that, it is also a fine example of on-the-ground reportage – and a deserving winner of Sheffield DocFest's Tim Hetherington Award – which considers the way that regimes are so frequently allowed to ride roughshod over innocent populations.

“What kills is people’s silence,” notes one protester. The young people of Sudan are speaking loudly and clearly, the tragedy is that they’re still waiting for the rest of the world to speak up and help them amplify their voices.

Reviewed on: 26 Jun 2025