SASA: 'Khartoum' lays bare plight of war victims

Every child desires to live in a carefree world. Free of conflict, especially those occasioned by politics or power struggles and driven by fear of the sudden, overwhelmingly loud sounds of guns and bombs.

The film Khartoum (2025), screened at the Alliance Francaise in Nairobi, is directed by Sudanese filmmakers Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed and Philip Cox.

It won the Peace Film Prize award at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival. The film captures the journeys of a civil servant, a tea seller, a resistance committee volunteer and two street boys, each narrating the moments when their livelihoods were turned upside down.

Through their stories, Khartoum offers a devoted and deeply human-centred approach to the ongoing war in Sudan, a conflict that broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The war has claimed thousands of lives, with hundreds of thousands of others displaced.

The children’s voices are perhaps the most haunting. As they speak not in the language of war, but in bits of their memory of nights filled with gunshots, of homes abandoned in dispatch, and of a childhood interrupted. Schools that were once a place of learning and laughter are now used to house internally displaced persons (IDPs), while others face damage, looting and complete shutdown, with many children now living in neighbouring countries as refugees.

Their innocence underscores the inhuman reality of conflict that spares no one, even the kids who are separated from their families.

KHADMALLAH (28), a single mum who was a tea vendor before the war broke out, recounts the terror and the pain she endured at the beginning of the conflict. She recalls the agony of leaving behind a home filled with memories, and now she is worried if she will ever return. Her story is one of loss, but also of resilience, the quiet determination to protect what remains of her family in the face of overwhelming uncertainty.

JAWAD (30) is a Sufi Rastafarian and a volunteer in his daily life. As he rides his motorcycle through the city, he encounters the first protests by civilians against the government. He reflects the heavy burden of responsibility carried in times of crisis when he was tasked with ensuring the safety of loved ones and speaks of difficult choices and the constant tension between fear and duty. His story reveals the unseen struggles of those who must remain strong, even when the future feels fragile.

Civil servant MAJDI (45), who escaped his office life by racing pigeons with his son, offers a view shaped by reflection. His narration is one of interrupted dreams, a life that was once filled with ambition, now overshadowed by instability. Yet, in his words lies a sense of awareness; an understanding of the broader reality unfolding around him and the long road to rebuilding what has been lost. With these voices, it is a clear depiction of life in conflict. While the film centres on individual experiences, their stories echo the broader crisis in Sudan, where violence has transformed everyday existence into a struggle for survival.

Homes have become temporary shelters, and the familiar has given way to the uncertain. Despite the weight of their experiences, there is an undercurrent of resilience that runs through each narrative. It is found in the determination to keep moving forward, to find safety, and to hold on to hope even in the darkest moments.

Khartoum is more than a film; it is a powerful reminder that behind every headline lies a human story. Through the voices of its survivors, the film calls on the world to not only witness the realities of war but to remember the people enduring it, and the enduring hope that one day, peace will return.