International Law & Popcorn: Khartoum

Englischsprahcige Veranstaltungsreihe im Sommersemester 2026

in Kooperation mit Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches Recht und Völkerrecht und

der Non-Profit Menschenrechtsorganisation Just Access e.V.

KHARTOUM (OmeU)

Mo, 06.07., 20:00 Uhr
discussed by Mark Somos (Just Access e.V.)

SUD/GB/D/Q | Director: Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea M. Ahmed, Phil Cox  | 80 Min.  
Documentary

Khartoum (2025) is out of control. Filming began before the latest civil war broke out in April 2023. Most people, in and out of Sudan, thought the conflict wouldn’t last long, so the film-makers stayed and captured both its outbreak and entrenchment. In the final version, which won the Peace Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, pre-war footage is intercut with the reenacted memories of five survivors who managed to flee: two boys, Lokain and Wilson, Majdi, a civil servant, Khadmallah, a tea stall owner, and Jawad, a resistance committee volunteer.  

Khartoum is laudably out of control not only because it captures unfolding events, but also because it chooses to gift considerable creative autonomy to the survivors. To tell their stories in their own way, each survivor asks the others to help reenact key experiences. The boys become someone’s sons, Khadmallah stands in for a girlfriend, Majdi and Jawad act as both victims and perpetrators in someone else’s recreated recollection. Their memories flow seamlessly into one pool that becomes a silent, undogmatic and clear mirror for us, viewers.  

Thanks to its creativity, authenticity and dignity, Khartoum turns its surrender of control into an asset. In it, a nation, its many tribes, and its 54 million people - 25 million of whom are starving, 22 million are children, 10 million are internally displaced, and 4 million have fled abroad - find a voice and are shown in vibrant colour. Khartoum’s intense humanity will change you; at least for a while.