Showing of the film 'Khartoum', 14 February 2026 - with review

Join us in person to watch this award-winning film, followed by a discussion. Money raised above costs will be donated to HAS. 

The showing will take place at the Lucas Lecture Theatre at King's College London on Saturday 14 February at 4pm. Please arrive on time.

Khartoum: five lives, one city, a nation at war

Native Voice Films & Sudan Film Factory with BBC Storyville, GISA Productions, Ayin Network, XTR

A civil servant, a tea lady, a resistance committee volunteer and two street boys. Five stories from Sudan weave together in search of freedom through animated dreams, street revolutions and a war from the metropolis of Khartoum to escape in East Africa.

A film by Anas Saeed Rawia Alhag Ibrahim Snoopy Timeea M. Ahmed with Yousef Jubeh & Phil Cox.

In 2022, four Sudanese filmmakers and a British writer-director began filming the everyday lives and dreams of five very different residents of Khartoum. Street boys Lokain and Wilson scour a garbage dump so they can buy two beautiful shirts; tea seller and single mother Khadmallah diligently studies maths so she can start her own business; Resistance Committee volunteer Jawad protests against the military regime; civil servant Majdi escapes office life by racing pigeons with his son. When filming begins, they are all living under a military regime that had recently overthrown the civilian government in Sudan. A short time later, the regime splits and a war begins between the military and the Rapid Support Forces militias that displaces more than ten million people. The filmmakers and their protagonists, too, are forced to flee to East Africa. Using animation, green screen reconstructions and dream sequences, they find alternative ways to tell their stories. The result is an emotional, lyrical portrait of five people from Khartoum at a key moment in African history.

Where : Lucas Lecture Theatre, Strand Building, King's College London WC2R 2LS 

When : Saturday 14 February at 4pm

Price : Tickets are £10 and are available on Eventbrite

SSSUK would like to thank Almas Art Foundation and King's College London and its volunteers for their help supporting this event. The showing is a part of Almas Art Foundation’s Voices and Visions of Sudan film programme.

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Review

SSSUK was proud to host a showing of the film 'Khartoum' at King's College London on Saturday 14 February. SSSUK would like to thank Almas Art Foundation and King's College London and its volunteers for their help supporting this event. The showing was a part of Almas Art Foundation’s BFI and National Lottery-supported Voices and Visions of Sudan film programme. There's a short survey the British Film Institute would like people who attended to complete so they can extend these kinds of programming.

The film and a short video piece by co-Director Ibrahim Snoopy were followed by a general discussion, led by Chairperson Aziz Magid. Guest speakers also said a few words - Marilyn Deegan, about the Sudan Memory project, and Giel Malual, about his and John Kuei's Long walk of freedom for Sudan, funding education for refugees fleeing the war. 

Comments after the film included: "I thought it was brilliant in its apparent simplicity ... the way it depicted the heartfelt truths of the people in it ... I was absolutely blown away by the effects. Uncomplicated but so deeply affecting and powerful. Amazing!"; "I especially valued that the film presented real facts about the war in Sudan".

Costs having been deducted, £1,245.92 was raised from ticket sales and donations through Eventbrite. This has been donated to Humanitarian Action for Sudan. Such a sum will fund around 1,500 food baskets (lentils, sugar, oil) which HAS help provide in multiple places across the country, including Darfur, Kordofan or East Sudan. You can read HAS' information on its activities here. Congratulations to all who purchased a ticket and made a donation! 

More events are being planned by the SSSUK Committee and members and we'll be in touch with more details soon.

Second statement on the war in Sudan

Readers will need no reminder that the war has now been raging in Sudan for two years. Like many we made a plea at Eid two years ago that the combatants draw back from disaster and end the war. This Eid, with great sadness, we urgently repeat our plea. Those risks we identified in 2023 - of countless lives lost, of critical infrastructure destroyed and heritage institutions damaged and looted - all these have come to pass in almost every region of the country. The war is also now destabilising neighbouring countries, such as South Sudan, millions have been displaced from their homes, a growing famine threatens further devastation, and a generation's education and promise of a fulfilling future is at risk.

What we could not fully anticipate in 2023 was the resilience and bravery of extraordinary ordinary civilians in communities across the country who have taken on the duties of responsibilities of the state themselves, feeding the hungry, healing the wounded and the sick, and teaching the children. We pay tribute to all those working and sacrificing for others amidst all the danger and destruction and equally underscore the need for their protection from harm. Together they represent a precious victory for humanity that will be remembered for generations.

SSSUK is a non-governmental charitable organisation with a Sudanese, South Sudanese and international membership; our members seek to make the history and culture of Sudan and South Sudan better known and understood. Our Society continues to stand back from engagement in politics, but we again take this moment of Eid to encourage belligerents to pause and look for political solutions; only these will end this war and create a sustainable peace. Recent developments on the ground seem to trend toward more clearly demarcated zones of military control. A resultant breathing space from the fighting may ensue, and in which case we strongly urge each side to seize the moment to engage with the civilian organisations who have sustained Sudan’s citizens through the long war, and set out a pathway towards civilian rule that offers hope to a nation and its friends abroad. 

Sudan has a rich history and diverse and resilient cultural traditions that have and can again sustain peace in disturbed times. As we celebrate Eid we ask you to pray for peacemakers and for peace.

Eid Mubarak.

2023 Symposium

The 2023 SSSUK Symposium and AGM took place at the Brunei Lecture Theatre, SOAS, London, on Saturday 16th September.  See details of the programme here.  Thank you to all our speakers and participants, as well as the SOAS Centre for African Studies! Here are the presentations given on the day.

Justice after Serious Violations and International Crimes Committed in the War in Sudan

Dr Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker and Dr Lutz Oette

Elections in South Sudan: a pathway out of Transition?

Dr Jan Pospisil

Panel:

Politics in the Sudan

The Changing Political Map in Sudan: the case of the ‘mainstream’ parties, the Umma and the DUP

Dr Abdelsalam Sidahmed

Political Parties and the Quest for a National Project

Ali Abdel Latif

Prof. Peter Woodward, Discussant

The Making of South Sudan’s Borders.

Featuring Dr Leben Moro and the late Dr Leonard Logo Mulukwat. A film by Florence Miettaux.

South Sudanese Women’s Traditional Roles and Empowerment in History.

A film by Florence Miettaux.

Abiol Deng, Discussant

Academics or Researchers at Risk in Sudan

If you are an academic or researcher now at risk due to the fighting in Sudan the following two support schemes may be useful:

• Council for At-Risk Academics https://www.cara.ngo

• Institute of International Education https://www.iie.org/crisis-response/

Statement on the war in Sudan

The Society for the Study of the Sudans UK (SSSUK) notes with sadness and alarm the ongoing extreme violence in Sudan, where infighting between military factions has caused the death of many innocent civilians and threatens the destruction of the cultural heritage and institutions throughout the country, including desperately needed healthcare facilities.

SSSUK is a non-governmental charitable organisation with a Sudanese, South Sudanese and international membership; our members seek to make the history and rich culture of Sudan and South Sudan better known and understood.

Our Society stands back from engagement in politics, but the combatants’ complete disregard for the lives and property of civilians across Sudan and the real threat of the war spreading further demand a concerted international response. Therefore, we join the United Nations and peaceful Sudanese people around the world in calling for an immediate ceasefire to enable a return to civilian government of the country. This is a time to unite to remember all that is good about Sudan and to hope, work and pray for a better future.

Eid Mubarak.