Tajouj

Film by Sudanese Filmmaker Gadalla Gubara. Mentioned in the Dictionary of African Filmmakers by Roy Armes.

For his first feature film in many years, the legendary filmmaker from Sudan has chosen to adapt Victor Hugo's classic novel Les Miserables for an African audience in the Arab language. The esteemed actor Gamal Hassan assumes the character of Jean Valjean from who is a man driven to crime and nefarious activities after circumstances have driven him in this direction. However, with the help of others he manages an incredible transformation. Gubara clearly saw this narrative as a significant parable concerning the will to change perceived as crucial for the future of Sudan.

In this documentary, we accompany Sara Gubara on a race between Capri to Naples as Sudan’s first international swimmer. At three years old, young Sara was stricken with polio, the family facing the bleak diagnosis that nothing could be done. Gadalla does not accept this fate, devoting himself to his daughter’s recovery. She was encouraged to swim and at twelve years old competes internationally. Moved by Sara’s incredible accomplishment, Gadalla made the documentary Viva Sara, which would later inspire the fiction film Sarahsarà (1994) by Renzo Martinelli. (Source: africanwomenincinema.blogspot)

The elder filmmaker makes a strong statement against the practices of circumcision as they performed around Africa and particularly Sudan. The film is typical of the later Gubara films which are determined to take a stand against the tyrannies that are still keeping people down. Gubara has stated that circumcision is "Nothing more than a bad habit".

Although perhaps without foresight, Gubara seemingly set out to capture a historic picture of a city that today has completely vanished. He reveals to us the livelier place that Khartoum was before fateful circumstances turned it into a tough, surviving shell of its former self.

The film denounces the popular practice of witchcraft. Some impostors are able to deceive the villagers into believing that their Sheikh had murdered one of his disciples after discovering he had an affair with his wife. The Sheikh is driven from the village.

Gubara was proud of the first color film in African cinema, which attempts to give an African response to the city symphony genre by capturing disparate images of daily life in Khartoum and setting it to music, particularly romantic Arabic songs.