Frédérique Cifuentes’s first documentary film, Cinema in Sudan: Conversations with Gadalla Gubara, builds up a portrait of a great Sudanese film-maker, Gadalla Gubara (1920 – 2008). He was still working at the age of eighty-eight - one of the pioneers of cinema in Africa. He lost his sight at the age of 80 years old but still continued to film life in Sudan as no one before him, with the help of his daughter Sara. Through his oeuvre, Gadalla reveals to us a Sudan both mysterious and misunderstood. Despite censorship and lack of financial support over sixty years, he produced cinema that is independent and unique in a country where freedom of expression was a rare luxury.

The film ‘Conversations with Gadalla Gubara’ retraces the struggle of a man who received the 2006 Award for Excellence for his career at the Africa Academy Awards, Nigeria. The film shows a unique collection of archive footage and stills photography from one of the founding fathers of African cinema. Gadalla was a person with a unique character: a Sudanese of great charm, caustic in his criticism of film-making, a humourist of refinement whose blindness had not tempered the rebel in him.

An extract of Frédérique’s full length 52 minute documentary film is available to view here.