Venice 2024 (Giornate degli Autori): Sudan, Remember Us | Interview of Hind Meddeb

We met Hind Meddeb, whose film Sudan, Remember Us, captures the vibrant spirit of Sudanese revolutionaries, drawing from her personal roots and the raw realities of those who refuse to be silenced.

I arrive a little early—like a good reporter—to my meeting with Hind Meddeb to discuss the second film in her documentary diptych Sudan, Remember Us, which premiered as part of Giornate degli Autori at the 81st Venice Film Festival. I recognize Meddeb in the makeup booth and immediately notice her striking attire. She is wearing a sand-colored dress decorated with emerald rhomboids. Her face is serious, just as I imagine a documentarian’s should be when covering an important subject.

But once she takes her photo call, her demeanor changes. Her gait is purposeful, and her eyes are alive. She jokes with the photographers and at one point even raises her arms in an Evita-like pose. It’s clear this is done genuinely and instinctively, and I am bedazzled. Once we finally sit down for our chat, I try to steer the conversation a little, but Hind—just like a seasoned reporter—takes the reins. She starts by asking me to tell her about myself, so once we’re properly introduced, I return the question.

What about you? What is something about you that isn’t often reported?

Hind Meddeb: People always present me as a French-Tunisian director, but they often forget that I am also Moroccan-Algerian. My mother is Moroccan-Algerian, and my favorite country out of all these—even though I was born in France—is Morocco. In the press, they never mention that I’m Moroccan, and today I want to state that I am Moroccan!

Your origins are actually part of my first question for you. I read on your Wikipedia page that your parents are a poet and a linguist.

Hind Meddeb: Yes, my mother is a linguist, and my father, who died 10 years ago, was a poet, a writer, a novelist, and a cinema critic. I grew up in a very intellectual family.

This is part of my question. Alongside your North African heritage, how would you say that your parents’ professions and the household you grew up in affected the way you see the world and the topics you choose for your films?

Hind Meddeb: It has affected me a lot. When my mother was young, she always dreamed about revolution and freedom. She experienced the dictatorship in Morocco during the reign of Hassan II, and it was difficult to be young at that time because there were many student disappearances. My mum left Morocco to study in France because she wanted more freedom. My father did something similar; he left Tunisia after the introduction of the Bourguiba dictatorship.

So I grew up with my parents having friends in prison—artists, writers, politicians, activists. I will always remember when my father’s best friend’s husband was released from prison after ten years and how we celebrated his return.

I will also always remember when my father hosted his friend—writer and journalist Tahar Djaout—in Paris. He was a refugee in France because they wanted to kill him in Algeria, but he was sad. He didn’t like France; he missed Algeria, and after a few months in France, he went back. He was executed. I will always remember him.

He was famous for his writing and said something very powerful: “If you talk, they kill you. If you write, they kill you. But I would rather talk and write than stay silent, even if it means they kill me.” And they did. He was executed with two bullets to his head in front of his house because his voice was so powerful. I’m dreaming of making a fictional movie telling his story.

In Europe, people only see the terrorists, but they never tell stories about those who resisted terrorism, and there are many, many people like that in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Algeria… Wherever Daesh and Al Qaeda are, there are also people resisting. But their stories remain untold. My cinema highlights these untold stories to open the eyes of Western people who are full of prejudice about Africa and the Arab world. European people should remember that European culture is predominant, and Europeans see themselves as a place of freedom. They want to give lessons to the world, but they should face all the crimes they committed. The genocide of the Jews in Europe came only after the genocide in the Congo, the enslavement… Millions of people were killed to build Europe and America, and that’s why I make these films: to give a different side of the story to the world.

Following up on what you just said, would you say the culprit here is the European worldview, or is it the capitalist worldview?

Hind Meddeb: European first, capitalist second. Capitalism has always existed: in Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt… Capitalism was always there, not even as part of the culture—it’s something human. Life and death, yin and yang, light and darkness. We, as humans, can be enlightened and dark. We can be generous and greedy. This is part of being human. But European culture is a culture of imposing one way of thinking, one way of seeing the world, and believing others are inferior.

Look at how we treat refugees in Europe. Europe should be grateful to Africa. Europe wouldn’t be so rich without Africa, and nowadays, when people from Africa want to come to Europe, we treat them like sh*t. It’s because we don’t remember our history. We don’t want to look at it.

Is this also what attracted you to tell the story of Sudan, Remember Us?

Hind Meddeb: It started in Paris. Where I lived in 2016, thousands of refugees were sleeping in the streets, and every day, the French police came, destroyed their tents, threw away their belongings, beat the people, and tried to push them out of the center. I used to live in this neighborhood, and I was witnessing this injustice. I was shocked. This was Paris, where people are nice and people aren’t racist. So I started to volunteer and translate for the people on the streets. And when I saw what was happening, I wrote an article in the newspaper. When I saw that nothing changed, I started to film.

This is what became your documentary Paris, Underground?

Hind Meddeb: Yes, we finished this film Paris, Underground, and the main character of the movie is from Sudan. This film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. And just as the movie was released, a revolution started in Sudan. So all of my Sudanese friends tried to convince me to go to Sudan and tell their story again. That’s how I decided to go.

A friend of mine in Paris told me I had to meet Shajane, who is famous in Sudan because every day during the revolution she was bringing messages, and people were taking pictures of her with these messages. And these messages were shared across the country. So when you walk the streets in Sudan with Shajane, you feel like you are with a celebrity because everyone wants to talk to her and hug her because they love her so much. That’s how the film started.

I would now like to show both movies—Paris, Underground and Sudan, Remember Us—together so that people can understand. Look at how you treat refugees, look where they come from, look at their huge culture, and see how they can be inspiring for us. I think we have to learn from them, not the other way around.

It takes a lot of courage to just go to Sudan and film the anti-government protests there.

Hind Meddeb: Yes, it does. And I went alone. I just took a plane. I had two friends who were working at a European embassy, so I felt very protected when I was staying with them. All the Sudanese friends from Paris gave me their friends’ numbers, so I felt very protected everywhere because I had a lot of help. But yes, you have to be courageous. At the same time, as soon as I arrived in Sudan, I felt at home. I fell in love with the music, the people, the poetry, the beauty of the landscapes, the beauty of the people, their knowledge, their political consciousness… I learned a lot, and I am very grateful to the Sudanese people for entrusting me to tell their story. I made this film as a Moroccan, Tunisian, Algerian, and French woman, and they are all famous for their revolutionary spirit.

It’s a human thing, isn’t it? The struggle for freedom.

Hind Meddeb: Yes, exactly. Everybody wants to be free. No one wants to live in a dictatorship. Everyone wants social care, education… The parents in Sudan say they will let their children die only if one day they can have what they’re fighting for: public schools, transportation, waste collection…

In the documentary, we see that the protagonists live in a bleak reality. But they are cheerful, hopeful… What do you think inspires the people in your film to see the beauty even in the cruelest circumstances? And what are some things that might make them give up someday?

Hind Meddeb: They didn’t give up. They won’t give up. The answer is in your question. First of all, a lot of them are very religious; they believe in God, so what inspires them is that they believe in beauty, and they believe in light. Not all of them believe in God, and for the first time in my life in an Arab-Muslim country, I saw people who want to live together: atheists, Christians, and Muslims… They want to celebrate their differences.

What inspires them is the desire for life. They are young, they love life. They love dancing and singing and chanting. They read a lot of books. They love literature and poetry. They know a lot about cinema. They’re curious about the world, and they want to be free to choose what to wear and how to live, just like every 20-year-old person.

I guess bravery also comes from solidarity. How did you find a balance between feeling and being present with them while capturing their story without making the film about yourself?

Hind Meddeb: I think this question is complicated because the way I work isn’t very conscious. I don’t have any experience in filming. I’m self-taught, so I don’t have a clear method. I just do it. The best answer I can give is that, before I take out my camera, I spend a lot of time with the people I film. I never just film like that; I have to be friends with them, spend a lot of time, eat, and sleep with them, even if it takes weeks, months, or years. That’s how I get the opportunity to film them. It’s important because, in the end, it’s not me filming; it’s me filming through their eyes.

Explore our exclusive coverage of the 81st Venice International Film Festival here.