Rent Talking About Trees (2019)
3.6 of 5 from 73 ratings
1h 33min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Winner of the 2019 Berlin Documentary Prize, this film is both a tribute to an enduring passion for film and a moving portrait of the power of friendship. Ibrahim, Manar, Suleiman and Altayeb, are all film directors and founders in 1989 of the Sudanese Film Club. Unable to make films for years, they have decided to revive an old cinema. They are united by their love of cinema and their passionate desire to restore old films and draw attention to Sudanese film history. But their plans to renovate the outdoor cinema come up against bureaucracy and lack of cash. In the meantime, they sit together and talk about the past and the history of Sudanese cinema, including their experiences of persecution and even torture. They recall their times of exile and dream of a Sudan in which art and intellectual thought can be free. 'We are smarter than them, but not as strong'. - Actors:
- Manar Al Hilo, Suleiman Ibrahim, Altayeb Mahdi, Ibrahim Shaddad
- Directors:
- Suhaib Gasmelbari
- Producers:
- Marie Balducchi
- Writers:
- Suhaib Gasmelbari
- Others:
- Marie Balducchi
- Studio:
- New Wave Films
- Genres:
- Documentary, Special Interest
- Collections:
- A History of Cinemas in Films, A Brief History of Film...
- Awards:
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Reviews (1) of Talking About Trees
Never Quite in the Picture. - Talking About Trees review by griggs
There's a derelict cinema just outside Khartoum, and four old filmmakers who had been living abroad plan to get the projector running again — that's the whole pitch.
The film never quite explains why these men scattered in the first place, or what changed to let them come home, and that gap sits underneath everything. Cutaways to 2019 news footage try to fill it in, but without that earlier context the footage floats free, more mood than meaning.
None of which matters much when the four of them are on screen together. Watching them bicker, dream, and needle each other about film is a real joy, and there's something touching about grown men still this excited about cinema after everything that pulled them away from it.
That warmth does more work than any of my complaints, carrying the film through its shakier stretches.
Still, the context you actually need is never quite in the picture.
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