Annenstrasse 53,
Screening the Archive

A Phenomenon of Sudanese Cinema in the 1970s and 1980s
Films by the Sudanese Film Group
Exhibition, film screenings, and talk

Suliman Elnour, Wa Lakin Alardh Tadur / It Still Rotates (USSR, 1978), film still

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Screening the Archive, at Annenstrasse 53,, looks at the Sudanese Film Group through an exhibition, film screenings, and a talk on post-independence Sudanese film. The Sudanese Film Group was founded in 1989 by a group of filmmakers (Ibrahim Shaddad, Eltayeb Mahdi, Suliman Elnour) who were among the first generation in Sudan who had studied cinema in film schools abroad. When they returned home, they worked in the Cinema Section of the Department of Culture in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when they also founded the journal Cinema, aiming to expand their engagement with the wider society. Turning their lens to the many economic and social changes their country was going through, these films are invaluable testimonies of a young Sudanese cinema tradition.

The program illustrates the vibrant cinematic landscape of Sudan in the 1970s and 1980s in which the group came together to produce these films despite the bureaucracy and the limited sponsorship of the state. Serving as crucial gathering spots for the urban communities, cinemas flourished at this time. This era ended abruptly with a military coup d’état in 1989, which annihilated the hopes for film production and screening; cinemas have since become desolate places. Screening the Archive reflects on the complex development of cinema in Sudan in this period.

All films have English subtitles.

24.9., 30.9., 15.10., 19:00


Annenstrasse 53,
Annenstraße 53
8020 Graz

Sat–Sun 15:00–19:00
Free admission

24.9.–16.10.
Exhibition

24.9., 19:00
Opening screening
Ibrahim Shaddad, Jagdpartie / Hunting Party (GDR, 1964), 41 min., German with English subtitles
Suliman Elnour, Afrika, Dzungli, Baraban I Revoljucija / Africa, the Jungle, Drums and Revolution (USSR, 1977), 11 min., Russian with English subtitles

30.9., 19:00
Screening and talk
Ibrahim Shaddad, Jamal / A Camel (Sudan, 1981), 14 min., no audible dialogue
Eltayeb Mahdi, Al Mahatta / The Station (Sudan, 1989), 16 min., no audible dialogue
Talk with Suliman Elnour, Eltayeb Mahdi, Ibrahim Shaddad, and Nikolaus Perneczky

9.10., 14:00
Parallel Program Tour

15.10., 19:00
Final screening
Ibrahim Shaddad, Al Habil / The Rope (Sudan, 1985), 32 min., no audible dialogue
Eltayeb Mahdi, Al Dhareeh / The Tomb (Egypt, 1977), 17 min., English subtitles
Eltayeb Mahdi, Arba’a Marat Lil Atfal / Four Times for Children (Sudan, 1979), 20 min., English subtitles
Suliman Elnour, Wa Lakin Alardh Tadur / It Still Rotates (USSR, 1978), 19 min., English subtitles


Organizer: Abdelrahman Elbashir within the context of Verein Das Gesellschaftliche Ding. Kunst, Architektur und Öffentlichkeit

Artists: Suliman Elnour, Eltayeb Mahdi, Ibrahim Shaddad, Abdelrahman Elbashir

Supported by steirischer herbst ’22