The Dam
classified 18 (CTBA) SPlease note: This was screened in May 2023
Lebanese artist and filmmaker Ali Cherri’s visually thrilling, quietly political first feature is an allegorical and enigmatic story with a touch of magical realism. Maher (played by Maher El Khair, who like the other actors in the film is a non-professional actor and professional bricklayer) works in a traditional brickyard fed by the waters of the Nile building the Merowe Dam in Northern Sudan.
Every evening, Maher wanders into the desert to work on his own mysterious construction made of mud. While the Sudanese people rise to claim their freedom, his creation starts to take a life of its own…
The Dam was shot in Sudan during the 2018-19 revolution that saw President Omar al-Bashir deposed after 30 years in power, and forms a trilogy with Cherri’s short films The Disquiet and The Digger, all themed around “the geography of violence” and interrogating how political and social crises may become embedded in the natural world.