Director Mahmoud Abdullah documents Omdurman’s war
Write – Al-Tayeb Saad Al-Din
The war arranged our lives in a manner different from what prevailed before it. Suddenly we lost contact with places and people, we missed bridges and roads, so we became isolated islands, everyone moving in a limited environment, everything in it was repeated, relationships changed, faces disappeared and new faces appeared. Perhaps we are more fortunate. When we decided to move and go out to the street because being dependent on the walls of the house is fatal.
On my personal level, the circumstances of the profession brought me together with the director brother Mahmoud Abdullah Mahmoud. He is a creator who combines skill in photography and directing with the ability to generate ideas quickly. By virtue of his work, he has visited all parts of Sudan for filming and directing.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Drama from the College of Music and Drama. He took specialized courses in a number of countries and worked in a number of media production companies that produce for major international channels, such as Al Jazeera, for which he directed more than twenty documentaries, including “The Return of the Camel,” “Removing the Bone from the Flesh,” and “The Days of Carlos.” In Khartoum, the movie Al Lori, the movie Jerusalem Africa, the churches of King Lalbela in Ethiopia, and the Sudan movie series “Where To!!” and the series “Against Military Rule”. He became a specialist in making documentary films. What makes me captivated most about him is that he does not beautify himself and is reconciled with himself. He derives his tales and stories from his simplified world. He reminds me of the international novelist Naguib Mahfouz, who used to sit in a café in a popular neighborhood from which he derived details of characters of his novels.
Mahmoud Wad Al-Eshlaq, because he grew up in the old days, you will find him full of the culture of the old people (I saw them and they understand it as a plane). He can tell you a hundred jokes a day and then come the next day with a hundred more. He hates snark and tends to laugh loudly. This is in addition to the bumps and troubles he has fallen into, which he tells them with all sincerity. It’s like he’s making fun of himself.
He practices positive thinking, and when he repeats his most famous phrase (Listen to me, O good one), it is certain that it is the moment of the birth of a new work. At ten years ago, I found myself immersed in the details, so Mahmoud invited me to write a script to be a partner in the birth of the largest documentary work of the war, and because the scenes were full of life, it motivated me to write. Within hours, I finished writing a series consisting of 6 films…
Mahmoud and his friend (Al-Dayami) Ahmed Adam Farona and Hazrat Al-Sul Abu Al-Rabi document the Omdurman war as you have never seen it before, scenes from unimaginable angles in which he used all his accumulated experience and employed 4K and Don technology. In my estimation, Mahmoud Abdullah’s series will win international awards.
