In 2022, four Sudanese filmmakers – Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, and Timeea Mohamed Ahmed – and British director-writer Phil Cox began documenting the lives and dreams of five residents of the capital city of Khartoum.

The filming took place against the backdrop of a military takeover in 2021, two years after the ousting of long-time autocrat Omar Al-Bashir and before the situation descended into a civil war in April 2022 between the national army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia.

"Over three years of continuous work during a revolution, protest, coup, and a war, we've made this film to share our story with the world," the Sudanese filmmakers reveal in the film's promotional video.

The subjects dealt with by the filmmakers, who fled to East Africa at that point, turned to innovative cinematic techniques, blending animation, green screen reconstructions, and documentary “dreamscapes” to vividly recount their stories of survival, revolution, and hope.

Through reenactments and firsthand accounts, Khartoum tells the stories of those displaced by the war and the resilience of ordinary people confronting extraordinary challenges.

It depicts their experiences of survival, revolution, and hope, offering a human perspective on the devastating effects of the ongoing war.

The film will be screened within the World Cinema Documentary Competition segment of the festival, competing against other strong titles, including How to Build a Library (Kenya), Where the Wind Comes From (Tunisia), Brides (UK), Cutting Through Rocks (Iran), Mr Nobody Against Putin (Russia), and Sauna (Denmark).