Daughter of Sudanese film legend Jubara preserves his legacy
khartoum — As she drove past an apartment complex on a street in Khartoum, Sara Jadallah turned silent.
It was here that her late father, the legendary film-maker Jadallah Jubara, set up Sudan’s first private film studio in the 1970s.
But in 2008, following an eightyear court battle over ownership of the land, the government demolished Studio Jad.
The demolition, shortly before the film-maker’s death at the age of 88, left little trace of the studio.
But stopping next to the blocks of flats that now stand in its place, Jadallah pointed at a white patch on an old wall among the new buildings. “The screen is still there,” she said. With her father’s studio gone, Jadallah has vowed to preserve his life’s work. With help from German experts, she has started digitising his entire film collection to create what she believes is Sudan’s first private archive of 15 and 35mm films.
“Through his camera he documented Sudan’s history. I want to preserve this legacy,” Jadallah, 66, told at her home in a southern Khartoum district.
Jubara was once an officer in the British army. Shortly after World War II he began work as a projectionist in a British mobile film unit. He went on to capture iconic moments in Sudan’s history, including the hoisting of the country’s flag as it gained independence from Britain in 1956.
In a career spanning more than five decades, he produced more than 100 documentaries and four feature films, including a famous 1984 love story “Tajooj”. But years of storage in poor conditions have taken a toll on his film archives. “Film rolls have a life span and because of exposure to heat and dust they have been damaged,” said Jadallah.
Jubara faced resistance from a conservative Sudanese society, making it difficult for him to find actors. But a determined Jubara encouraged family members to work with him, including Jadallah. “He believed that cameramen were the most important people in the world... and in their hands was the most important weapon,” she said. Jadallah, who made a name for herself as a national swimming champion despite having polio as a child, also studied film in Cairo. —