After the Military Coup in Sudan in 1989, Egypt witnessed great numbers of Sudanese emigrants coming to Cairo, from the north and from the south of Sudan, among them a huge number of intellectuals, thinkers, University professors, journalists, doctors, lawyers and even ex ministers, those whom we call "the Nation's Mind," as well as teachers and ordinary people. All of them had been fired from their jobs by the new government. The film investigates the situation of those who came to Cairo, either to stay or just passing by for another country, looking for a way to survive and dreaming of going back to their home land " The Sudan."


Atteyat Al-Abnoudy & Hussain Sherif, dirs.

Egypt, 1993, 52 mins, doc, Arabic with English subtitles,

Year: 1993
Runtime: 52 minutes
Language: English with Arabic

Production: The Sudanese Organization for Human Rights

A documentary film that uses a combination of sound, image, colour and peoples testimonies to historically account for the period following the fundamentalist military coup in the Sudan in 1989. This period witnessed the migration of a staggering number of Sudanese from their country to all parts of the World. The Sudan became an expellant of its people.

The greater majority of Sudanese migrants headed to Egypt, where the film was shot, there is an estimated number of 3 million Sudanese migrants to Egypt since the military coup.

Moving between different strata of Sudanese communities in Egypt the film, through various personal testimonies, throws light on the living conditions of ordinary people. All provide pieces of the saga, all have taken refuge in Egypt. All dream of returning back to Sudan, one day.

The film was premiered at the United Nations Human Rights Conference, Vienna, in 1993.