MARRAKECH – At the beginning of The Sudanese revolution of 2019Shajane Suliman brought sandwiches, coffee and mint tea to protests in Khartoum’s closed neighborhoods. But as hope gave way to despair, she decided it took more than food to fuel the movement.

There has been a public outcry against Sudan’s long-time military dictator and his mismanagement of the country’s economy. During the months of protests, hundreds of people have been killed or injured by security forces suppressing the demonstrations.

So Suliman donned a gas mask and headed to the streets holding up posters emblazoned with lines like: “Souls cannot be killed, much less ideas. »

On another continent, filmmaker Hind Meddeb was finishing “Paris Stalingrad,” a documentary on the fate of refugees living in camps near the French capital. Sudanese refugees encouraged her to travel to Khartoum and film their budding revolution.

This is the origin story of “Sudan, Remember Us,” Meddeb’s 75-minute documentary presented in competition at the Marrakech Film Festival this week after screening at festivals in Venice and Toronto.

Sudan, a majority Arab country on the edge of sub-Saharan Africa, descended into civil war in 2023 as fighting broke out between the army and a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces from the famous Janjaweed militia of Darfur.

Although estimates are difficult to obtain, at least 24,000 people were killed and millions of displaced people in a conflict that has been largely eclipsed in world attention by wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

For Suliman, who has become one of its protagonists, the aim of the documentary is similar to what she wrote on a poster five years ago: an effort to motivate a desperate public years after the revolution ended. failed to cement the civil regime.

The revolution, she said, was like “a piece of paradise” despite the violence, full of music, poetry and optimism about Sudan’s future.

“Everyone has forgotten or lost hope,” Suliman said in an interview with The Associated Press. “For us, the situation is different today from what it was at the beginning of the revolution. We were together so it was easy. Now we have to change the way we want to continue. »

“Sudan, Remember Us” begins with a series of voice messages to Meddeb from April 2023, the month the civil war broke out. Activists describe their feelings of shock and disbelief at how UN officials called a “forgotten war” ruined lives and made their country unrecognizable.

Above all, it takes viewers back to 2019, the year the Sudanese army overthrew President Omar al-Bashirpaving the way for power sharing and a short-lived transitional government led by generals and civilians.

Shot largely with a handheld camera in a country that has at times blocked the Internet, banned foreign news channels and arrested its own journalists, the film is both a story of collective hope and a feat of reporting.

Meddeb’s observational approach and dedication to poems differ from gripping, streaming-friendly protest documentaries such as “The Place” by Jehane Noujaim (2013), “Winter on Fire” by Evgeny Tandieevsky (2015) or “Revolution of Our Times” by Kiwi Chow (2021). It captures the images necessary for a documentary about the revolution: the chaos and terror as well as the solidarity and joy of demonstrators confronting security forces.

But the film aims for a different type of storytelling.

A former France 24 journalist, Meddeb turned to documentary because of the leeway it offered to let stories unfold in unpredictable ways, she said in an interview.

“It’s a very spontaneous film. I was diving into what was happening and filming what inspired me,” she said at the Marrakech Film Festival.

What she discovered and inspired was a country described as a “land of literature” and a revolution in which women played a central role.

The protests presented in the documentary vibrate to the rhythm of drums during marches and to the rhythm of poems recited during sit-ins. Meddeb takes the audience from street fights filmed by phone cameras to underground cafes to the edge of the Nile as young people discuss their hopes for Sudan.

“The revolution was a time of beautiful feelings and beautiful projects,” said one woman after security forces killed more than 100 people in a massacre in June 2019. “It made you want to participate. A painting, a poem, anything that brings people together.