‘Sudan, Remember Us' wins Audience Award at FCAT 2025
The film depicts the 2019 overthrow of Sudanese leader Omar Al-Bashir and the subsequent civil war that followed.
The documentary Sudan, Remember Us, directed by French journalist-turned-filmmaker Hind Meddeb, has won the TV5Monde Plus Audience Award at the 22nd African Film Festival of Tarifa-Tangier (FCAT 2025), marking a major recognition for the powerful portrait of Sudanese youth resistance.
The film originally premiered on August 30, 2024, in the Giornate degli Autori section at the 81st Venice International Film Festival. It follows the lives of five young Sudanese revolutionaries—Shajane, Maha, Muzamil, Rufaida and Khattab—as they confront authoritarian rule through political and artistic expression. Through poems, chants, and unwavering activism, the film paints a collective portrait of a generation determined to fight for freedom in Khartoum.
The narrative traces their journey from the historic 57-day sit-in at the Army headquarters to the June 3, 2019, massacre, the 2021 military coup, and the outbreak of war that ultimately pushed them into exile. The documentary not only highlights personal and political resilience but also sheds light on the broader context of military violence in regions like Darfur, Kordofan, and Blue Nile.
Produced by Abel Nahmias of Echo Films, Michel Zana and Alice Ormières of Blue Train Films, and Tao Guiga of My Way, the France-Tunisia co-production amplifies the voices of a generation seeking justice and change, bringing their struggle to a global audience.
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Middle East Eye
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The Unites States also put pressure against the move. US President Donald Trump warned that he would consider a recognition of a 'conjectural' Palestinian state a hostile act and made clear his response would be harsh. The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, even ironically suggested that France could 'carve out a piece of the French Riviera and create a Palestinian state'. Illusion of the 'two-state solution' Israel and the US have their own plan for the region, and it is not a 'two-state solution'. On 18 July 2024, the Knesset passed a resolution stating that a Palestinian state would pose 'an existential danger to the state of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and destabilise the region'. The massacre of the Palestinian people in Gaza and their concentration into small areas of the destroyed enclave ahead of their planned deportation are steps in this blood-paved track. The annexation of the largest part of the occupied West Bank is now written down in law. The judaisation of East Jerusalem meets no obstacle, and Al-Aqsa Mosque is in the crosshairs of messianic groups who dream to build the 'third Temple' there. Israel and the US have their own plan for the region, and it is not a 'two-state solution' Meanwhile, the annexation of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights has been recognised by the US. Israeli troops are settling in Lebanon on the south bank of the Litani River, and are pushing their pawns in Syria. Trump is more prosaic than his evangelical Christian supporters who pray for the final battle of Armageddon to come. He dreams of changing Gaza into 'the Riviera of the Middle East' and a lucrative business opportunity, similar to Netanyahu's 'Gaza 2035' project. Huckabee proposes to create a Palestinian state elsewhere in the Muslim world. In other words, US and Israeli leaders are working to achieve the so-called 'voluntary transfer' of Palestinians and the 'Greater Israel' the Zionist founding fathers have long dreamed about. The gap between the reality on the ground and the so-called 'two-state solution' is now too wide and deep, unless the balance of power dramatically changes - which does not seem close to happening. A recognition under Israeli conditions Hoping to curb these projects saturated with Jewish messianism and Christian millenarianism, and brutally carried out with a shameless disrespect for international law, French diplomats worked for weeks to convince Israel the conference was actually intended to help it. The recognition of a Palestinian state, they explained, would come under an array of conditions that would meet Israelis demands. They include the release of the hostages kept in Gaza, 'a reform of the Palestinian Authority [PA] and the establishment of governance in Gaza under its authority, excluding Hamas, which must be disarmed'. The French also required that the PA commits to stop 'terror salaries', in reference to the financial aid to the families of Palestinians killed, injured or imprisoned by Israel, as well as so-called 'incitement against Israel' in textbooks. UK and France abandon plans to recognise Palestinian state at conference Read More » The objective, recalled Macron, is 'a demilitarised Palestinian state which recognises Israel's existence and security, backed by an international stabilisation mission'. Paris assured that the Arab countries which had planned to participate in the conference agreed to lend their support to these demands. Even PA President Mahmoud Abbas sent Macron what the French president called 'a letter of hope, courage and clarity' in which he expressed the PA's 'readiness to assume sole governance and security responsibilities in the Gaza Strip' and 'the need for Hamas to hand over its weapons and military capabilities'. In addition, Macron suggested that French recognition of the Palestinian state should be linked to a 'reciprocal' normalisation of Arab states' relations with Israel, starting with Saudi Arabia. But none of these attentions assuaged Israeli and American hostility. Eventually, France reportedly abandoned the idea to recognise the Palestine state during the conference, which would instead focus on 'steps towards recognition'. Once more, Palestinians are expected to wait for their existence to be recognised and to rely on an uncertain peace process to have their rights granted, while Israel continues to transform the reality on the ground to its advantage. A Palestinian bantustan The most striking element in this scheme is what remains untold. In 2002, the Arab League offered to normalise Arab countries' ties with Israel in return for a full withdrawal from the occupied territories, a "just settlement" of the Palestinian refugee issue, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. What Macron expects from the Arabs states is to offer the last card in their hand for free, without the slightest guarantees from Israel about settlements and borders, the preservation of the Palestinian character of East Jerusalem, the release of the thousands of administrative detainees, the economic viability of a future Palestinian state, the free movement of Palestinian citizens, etc. The very word 'self-determination', a right which should suffer no condition, appears nowhere. Macron wants to offer Israel control over a 'Palestinian state' deprived of sovereignty and call that 'peace' All these basic conditions of sovereignty are therefore left to the goodwill of the Israelis. However, history teaches us that Israel, in such situations, always takes what is offered and never gives what it vaguely promised in return. France did not give any indication on how it would pressure Israel to 'end its illegal settlement activity, which compromises the viability of a Palestinian state', as it acknowledged. It also failed to ask Israel to comply with the obligation 'to end its unlawful presence, policies in occupied Palestinian territory within one year', as stated by the UN General Assembly in September following an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) saying Israel's occupation was unlawful. If nothing happens to alter the current dynamic, a Palestinian state would be established on a territory fragmented by Israeli settlements and bypass roads, squeezed into a few urban centres isolated from each other, and suffocated by a total economic dependence on Israel. Its capital would be the remote suburb of Abu Dis, which is separated from Jerusalem by a wall. Its borders would be under Israeli control. It would have no military force to oppose the Israeli army's operations. And it would be ruled by a Palestinian Authority which has become a corrupt police regime, subjugated to Israeli security requirements. There is a precedent for such a state, in apartheid South-Africa: it is called a Bantustan. Trump's Gaza plan: The century-old Zionist illusion of 'voluntary' emigration of Palestinians Read More » In other words, Macron wants to offer Israel control over a 'Palestinian state' deprived of sovereignty and call that 'peace'. This is the cruel outcome of years of impunity which allowed Israel to methodically destroy the material basis for a Palestinian state. Europeans bear a heavy responsibility in this disaster. Macron's plan is therefore too little too late. Still, even this is too much for Israel and the US, whose President Donald Trump urged countries to skip the UN conference, before it was eventually cancelled. Israel's logic has remained unchanged for decades: it wants to 'spirit across the border' the non-Jewish presence on the 'promised' land, as suggested by the father of Zionism, Theodor Herzl. It wants to be the only military power in the Middle East and expects unconditional support from the world. In its vision, Arabs and especially Palestinians have no choice but to accept their defeat. They have to bear the brunt of European guilt for its antisemitic past - and be accused of antisemitism if they resist their dispossession and erasure. As long as France is not ready to fight this logic and make Israel accountable for its violations of international law, its diplomatic efforts towards a just peace will remain a hypocritical show, only aimed at keeping an illusion of morality. 'Israelisation' of French politics France does nothing to stop a genocide Macron even refuses to name. It does nothing to break the humanitarian blockade of Gaza. It keeps on selling arms to Israel, muzzles as too 'radical' those who dare speak of 'colonialism' and 'apartheid', and criminalises anti-Zionism as antisemitism. When Israel illegally launched its attack on Iran, Macron stuck to the Israeli script: Iran is a threat for the region and should never get the nuclear bomb, Israel is entitled to conduct 'preemptive' strikes, etc. The bottom line of the whole sequence is that France has lost its diplomatic influence in the Middle East. The bottom line of the whole sequence is that France has lost its diplomatic influence in the Middle East Since the 1960s, French diplomacy had followed the tradition of President Charles de Gaulle, whose cardinal rule was independence. After the 1967 war, Paris played a leading role in shaping a political solution to the conflict. It advocated for the self-determination of the Palestinian people, promoted the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) as their representative, convinced PLO leader Yasser Arafat to opt out of the armed struggle and recognise Israel. However, since the end of the Cold War and the first war on Iraq in 1991, the US has taken the lead. Between hyper America and intransigent Israel, France, bound by a divided European diplomacy, has no leeway anymore. Since the 9/11 attack, most of the French political and media elite has fully endorsed the Israeli narrative and its endless 'war on terror'. Besides, the domestic obsession about 'Islamism' and immigration interferes more and more with France's Middle East policy. This 'Israelisation' of French politics reached a paroxysmal level after the attack of 7 October 2023. In such a framework, Macron's initiative was doomed to fail, as it is flawed by a total lack of understanding of the Palestinian experience and history, and by a denial of the colonial nature of the situation. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
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