Short film
The Station
المحطة
Eltayeb Mahdi · 1989
Synopsis
At a great crossroads, around a petrol station planted in the desert on the road from Khartoum to Port Sudan, travellers pass on foot, by car or by lorry, and cross paths there. Without dialogue, through music and images alone, the film sets side by side the lorries laden with goods and the hardships of the Sudanese, tradition and modernity.
Context
Produced in Khartoum by the cultural administration, the film received in 1989 a special mention from the Interfilm jury at the Oberhausen festival, then prizes in Burkina Faso, Damascus and Tunisia. The Arsenal in Berlin restored it in 2018 with other works by his companions, shown at the Berlinale Forum in 2019, then at the El Gouna festival in 2023 and on the Criterion Channel.
Who it is for
For discovering Sudanese cinema before 1989 in a brief film, carried by image and music alone.
Prizes and reception
The Film Verdict sees in it the Sudanese desert confronted with modernisation, between imported vehicles and oil companies.
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