Seventh Cinema: Human Being (إنسان / Insan) and Talking About Trees

Human Being (إنسان / Insan) (1994) 27m. Directed by Ibrahim Shaddad.

This experimental film without dialogue makes innovative use of sound to tell the story of a shepherd who, having lost his wife, children and cattle after his homeland is stricken by drought, goes to the city to find work. Through a poetic association of images the film critiques the dehumanising effects on the Sudanese people of the Sharia ruled government that was in power in the early eighties.

Talking About Trees (2019) 1h 30m. Directed by Suhaib Gasmelbari.

In Sudan, cinema is a thing of the past, but four directors and lifelong friends refuse to accept it. They learned their art abroad—one of them is jokingly referred to as the Sudanese Eisenstein by the others. With their Sudanese film club, the men struggle to keep their film culture alive. Much of their work has been lost, but a few excerpts are included in the documentary.

To introduce others to the magic of film, they decide to rent a dilapidated old open-air cinema for a big free screening. But how do you do this in a country where there are power cuts, you lack the equipment and infrastructure, and the call to prayer blares out from mosques on all sides? “How did we used to do it?” they wonder, laughing. Then they realise that there didn’t used to be a call to prayer. Sudan’s repressive and violent history remains in the background, and film is clearly still out of favour with the regime. Nevertheless, the men remain hopeful.

Concerning Violence 

We are pleased that Seventh Cinema is back for a second season! 

This year's curated film program is anchored in Martinican psychiatrist and anti-colonial thinker Frantz Fanon’s often-misunderstood and overly read essay Concerning Violence from his 1961 book The Wretched of the Earth. For this season, we have curated films that engage with Fanon’s work in the spirit he intended - not as an endorsement of violent action, but as a confrontation of the processes that drive the colonised to employ violence. This season includes seminal films such as The Battle of Algiers, one of cinema’s great political masterpieces, which charts the Algerian national liberation movement from its beginnings in 1954 through to independence in 1962. Also featured is Embrace of the Serpent, a visually stunning work filmed on 35mm in the Amazon, set against the violent backdrop of the colonial rubber trade. Dulce Fernandes' film essay Tales of Oblivion by offers a meditative reflection on the physical and cultural remnants of colonial atrocities in our present landscapes  - a 15th-century landfill turned car park and mini golf course, museum artefacts - capturing the haunting echoes of the horrific trade in human beings. 

We welcome you to join us in viewing these important films and reflecting on their profound relevance to the present. This season invites a critical examination of colonialism within our local context and the atrocities unfolding further afield. In engaging with Fanon’s work, we are called to consider the responsibilities of Western intellectuals and nations in perpetuating or dismantling colonial systems. Most importantly, these films challenge us to ask: what is our role in the revolution?

Screenings are free to attend, and all are welcome.