Ibrahim is back in the village he once left behind. He wants to show films. But “cinema is banned here, Ibrahim – they like playing football here,” reads the text in blue above the arid landscape. So the Sudan Film Institute organises a football match featuring four teams named after Elia Suleiman, Abbas Kiarostami, Ousmane Sembène and Abderrahmane Sissako. The winner gets to decide which film will be shown that evening. Before then, local peculiarities and bureaucracy must be overcome. And then war breaks out. “Nothing Happens After Your Absence” is the final part of Omer’s trilogy “After the Event or Post-Trauma”, which views Sudan as if suspended in time, keeping the war outside the frame. It appears in on-screen text, in children’s games and in conversations. With humour and satire, Omer gives an account of the violence that intrudes on everyday life and of cinema as a place of resistance and community.

Seggen Mikael