The documentary portraying the struggle of young Sudanese for democracy: "The military wants the people to forget the great things they did."

In 2016, journalist and documentary filmmaker Hind Meddeb (France, 47) met a group of Sudanese people camped near Place Stalingrad in Paris. They were among thousands of people from around the world who, having fled their country, now had to navigate French bureaucracy to secure an appointment to apply for asylum. One of them, a young man from Darfur named Suleymane, and his poems formed the central theme of what would eventually become a 2019 documentary: Paris Stalingrad . Shortly after the film's premiere at the Cinéma du Réel festival, Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir, who had been in power for 30 years, was overthrown. “And my Sudanese friends told me: ‘You filmed us sleeping on the streets of Paris and being humiliated. Now you have to go to our country and understand where we come from,’” the director recalls via video call from Tarifa, where she was attending the recent Tarifa-Tangier African Film Festival (FCAT) .

“They asked me to bring back images of their revolution because they couldn't return to Sudan. They were in the middle of the asylum process, and most of them had risked their lives to get there,” she explains. “We're going to help you,” they promised. A month later, on May 16, Meddeb landed in Khartoum , a city that was experiencing, as the director recalls, the “dream of democracy.” That first trip to the capital in 2019 was followed by others in subsequent years. Visits in which Meddeb captured with her camera the struggle for democracy of Sudanese youth, at a time when everything seemed possible, and also how military repression and political instability threatened those desires for freedom. From these trips came the documentary Soudan, souviens-toi (Sudan, remember us in English and Sudan, remember in Spanish ) , which won the Audience Award at the FCAT. A film that presents a poetic and fragmented journey through a revolution crushed by a coup d'état and a war that continues today .

“Imagine if there really was a democracy”

When Meddeb arrived in Khartoum, he found thousands of people camped around the capital's administrative district, demanding that the army implement a democratic transition after the dictator's fall. Shot handheld, the documentary follows some of the faces of this revolution, many of them young Sudanese who, for the first time in their lives, sense the possibility of political change. "Government of the people, yes, yes, yes. Military government, no, no, no," they shout in the streets. "The time has come to take back our country," a young woman tells the camera. "We young Sudanese will not move until you give in and accept our demands," explains another. "Imagine if there really is a democracy," they ask.

While filming, I thought that this country could become an inspiration for all of us.

“There were people from all over the country, from different ethnic groups and languages, demanding to live together with all their differences. We don't want war, we want peace, freedom, and dignity, they said. They demanded basic rights: a public school, a public hospital. They were very politically aware, and their demands were clear,” Meddeb recalls. “They were very well organized. There was a library, also a field hospital, because sometimes the militias attacked the sit-in. They had a school for street children and an entire system for delivering food, because it was Ramadan. People cooked at home and brought it to the camp,” he adds.

For the director, the daughter of an Algerian-Moroccan mother and a Tunisian father, documenting this movement was a way to share the hopes her family always had for their own countries. “Ever since I was little, my parents dreamed of the same things for Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria,” she says. Meddeb recalls how her mother, linguist Amina Maya Khelladi, told her about her youth in Morocco, in a city where police raided university dormitories and took students away. Her father, Tunisian writer Abdelwahab Meddeb , was forced into exile during the rule of Habib Bourguiba. And when she was a child in Paris, their home became a refuge for persecuted Algerian writers and poets. With all those memories, Meddeb felt a deep connection to Sudan and its people. “While I was filming, I thought that this country could become an inspiration for all of us,” she confesses. She adds, “My dream for Africa is Madaniya , which is also that of the Sudanese people.” This word, which comes from Madani , which means citizens in Arabic, was the cry for civil government in the midst of the uprisings.

However, on June 3, that democratic dream suffered another blow. That morning, militias attacked the encampment. A massacre the documentary chronicles with images the military themselves posted on their social media. After that day, Meddeb was more certain than ever that he had to continue filming. “I still can't believe what happened was true. Protesters were burned alive. Bodies in the Nile. Impossible to know. They attacked the militia, without warning,” the film narrates.

When you rebuild the country, remember me

Soudan, Souviens-Toi contrasts scenes full of beauty and hope, such as those in which the protagonists gather in a secret bar to discuss the future of Sudan, with others of struggle and uncertainty, such as those in which these same young people go out to demonstrate after the October 2021 coup d'état and wonder what will become of their country. It is also full of poetry and songs, which are only heard in the moments when the documentary portrays violence and repression. “I didn't choose to do that [introduce poetry and songs], I was there, I just filmed what I was seeing,” explains the director. “It's as if the Sudanese recited poetry while breathing; it's part of their culture, it's natural, as if they weren't making any effort,” she adds.

Specifically, the documentary begins with the current conflict , which began in April 2023, and ends with a poem. “It gives voice to a young man who died in the demonstration. It's about someone who is in heaven and speaks from there to his friends. And he says: When peace comes, remember me. When you rebuild the country, remember me. When you plant a tree and it bears sweet fruit and you taste it, remember me, ” explains the director.

This film was made to remember the revolution, because doing so means owning your own history. Memory is very important for the future.

Hind Meddeb, director of 'Soudan, Souviens–toi'

“That's why I called the film Sudan, Remember Us . Who are these ' us '? They're all the people who died for freedom. It's this idea of ​​not dying in vain. These young people who died in their 20s did so because they believed in a better future for their country. That's the reason for the documentary: never to forget. From the military's perspective, as soon as they start the war and kill, and kill, and kill, what they want is to terrorize and make the people forget the great things they did. They're trying to kill the idea that freedom is possible,” he adds.

For Meddeb, the current war in the country, which has turned Sudan into the world's largest humanitarian crisis , "is not a civil war, but one between two men, [General Abdel Fattah] Al Burhan and [paramilitary leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias] Hemedti ." "And the reason is to stop the revolution, destroy civil society, continue robbing Sudan and taking the country away from its own people." "This film was made to remember the revolution, because doing so means owning your own history. Memory is very important for the future. Because peace will return. People will rebuild the country," he concludes.