For this latest installment of our “100 Frames“ series, we present stills from Sudanese filmmaker hajooj kuka’s 2015 documentary Beats of the Antonov, a vibrant, unforgettable celebration of creativity and resistance in the face of unimaginable conflict.
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100 Frames: Beats of the Antonov
Introduction by Dylan Valley
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“Instead of a dry, journalistic account of the ongoing Sudanese conflict, whose roots are in the events of June 1989, when Omar al-Bashir led a military coup and declared himself president, this film is a deep exploration of a nation in an identity crisis, with its ruling elite pushing an Arab nationalist identity onto a diverse African citizenry. The title of the film makes a connection between the bombs of oppression and the resilience of culture, the music of a people and the suffering they endure.”—Dylan Valley
Born in 1976 in Sudan and raised in the United Arab Emirates, hajooj kuka studied Electrical Engineering at the American University of Beirut and Digital Design at San Jose State University. His documentary Beats of the Antonov won the People’s Choice Award at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. He was featured on PBS’s “POV” series and has screened at more than 60 international film festivals. Kuka, who trains and works with young filmmakers across Sudan, was named by Foreign Policy magazine as a Leading Global Thinker in 2014. In 2020, he was admitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, Dylan Valley has directed several documentaries for Al Jazeera, and he released his award-winning feature film Afrikaaps in 2012. For this film, he was nominated for Best Documentary Director at the 2012 South African Film and Television Awards. Valley is based in Johannesburg, where he is an Associate Lecturer in Film at the University of the Witwatersrand.