What Happens in Talking About Trees?
The complete story of Talking About Trees, from the first scene to the last, in 416 words (about 2 minutes). Spoilers throughout.
Spoilers ahead
Four Sudanese friends who studied film-making at foreign institutions in Germany and Russia have reunited in Sudan as old men. They run the Sudanese Film Group, which hosts screenings of films. They speak on a radio program, recalling the 1989 military coup which led to their arrests and exile and ended an era of Sudanese filmmaking in the 1970s and 1980s.
They try to open a cinema in Omdurman, which they seek to make free to the public and free from censorship or state influence. They find an old outdoor theater called The Revolution whose owner is willing to let them rent it. They struggle to fix up the dilapidated venue, including obtaining a projector, renting chairs, painting a sign, and repainting a wall to be the screen. Hana, a member of the Sudanese Film Group, attempts to get permits for the screening but is faced with intransigent bureaucracy and wary morality police who question the film group’s desire to open a cinema and choice of films.
Meanwhile, the filmmakers reminisce about the films they made in their youth. Ibrahim Shadad talks about his short graduation film Jagdpartie (Hunting Party), that he made in 1964 at the Deutsche Hochschule für Filmkunst Potsdam-Babelsberg in East Germany. This symbolic story about racism was shot in a forest in Brandenburg, and employs the genre of Western movies for the hunting of an African man. Also, Shadad talks about his 14-minute documentary Jamal (Camel) that he produced in Sudan in 1981, featuring the work of a camel in a sesame mill. Suleiman Ibrahim recovers from Moscow the film he made for his thesis, Africa, The Jungle, Drums, and Revolution.
The filmmakers witness the re-election of President Omar al-Bashir in 2015 with over 90% of the vote and doubt the election’s integrity. Shadad directs, shoots, and edits a film based on his experiences as a prisoner in the 1990s, featuring a prisoner in a small bathroom who has water dripping on his head but chooses not to move to avoid it.
The filmmakers survey the townspeople and based on their vote decide to screen Django Unchained. They try to schedule the screening so that the adhan from six surrounding mosques does not interrupt. During a private film screening of Modern Times, the adhan interrupts the filmmakers’ introductory speech.
Ultimately, the authorities do not give the permits needed to open the cinema, and the inaugural public screening is cancelled. The film ends with Shadad rehearsing his welcome speech for the planned screening.
