Το 1883 ο Βρετανός πρωθυπουργός Γκλόντστοουν στέλνει το στρατηγό Τσαρλς Γκόρντον στο Χαρτούμ του Σουδάν, όπου χιλιάδες πολίτες απειλούνται από ένα φανατικό μουσουλμάνο, τον Μαχντί, και τη στρατιά των οπαδών του. Ο Γκόρντον κερδίζει το σεβασμό του Μαχντί, αλλά δεν μπορεί να εμποδίσει τους άντρες να πολιορκήσουν την πόλη. Καθώς η έκβαση της ιστορίας μοιάζει να είναι αβέβαιη, ο Γκόρντον είναι έτοιμος να αντιμετωπίσει τη μεγαλύτερη μάχη της ζωής του αμυνόμενος την αρχαία πόλη του Χαρτούμ.
Ένας Βρετανός στρατιώτης δραπετεύει από το Χαρτούμ του 1880 και κατεβαίνει στον ποταμό Νείλο με έναν συμπατριώτη στρατιώτη, έναν κυβερνήτη και την κόρη ενός εμίρη.
Είναι μια διασκευή του 1955 του μυθιστορήματος Τα Τέσσερα Φτερά. Χρησιμοποιεί σκηνές από την αρχική ταινία του 1939, αλλά και έχει ακριβώς το ίδιο σενάριο, σχεδόν λέξη προς λέξη. Γυρίστηκε στο Σουδάν.
Filmmakers Ibrahim, Suliman, Eltayeb and Manar, close friends for many years, left their motherland in the sixties and seventies to study film abroad and founded the Sudanese Film Group in 1989. After years of distance and exile, they are reunited, hoping to finally make their old dream come true: to bring back cinema to Sudan by reopening the Halfaia Cinema, a dilapidated theater in Khartoum.
A group of exceptional young ladies in Khartoum are determined to play football professionally. They are prepared to defy the ban imposed by Sudan's Islamic Military government and they will not take no for an answer. Their battle to get officially recognized as Sudan's National Woman's team is fearless, courageous and often laughable. But their struggle is unwavering. Through the intimate portrait of these women over a number of years we follow their moments of hope and deception. Despite the National Football Federation getting FIFA funds earmarked for the women's teams, this team continues to be marginalized. However, there is a new spark of hope when the elections within the federation could mean real change of the entire system.
As if they were showing their film to a few friends in their home, the Johnsons describe their trip across the world, which begins in the South Pacific islands of Hawaii, Samoa, Australia, the Solomons (where they seek and find cannibals), and New Hebrides. Thence on to Africa via the Indian Ocean, Suez Canal, North Africa, and the Nile River to lion country in Tanganyika. (They are briefly joined in Khartum by George Eastman and Dr. Al Kayser.) Taking a safari in the Congo, the Johnsons see animals and pygmies, and travel back to Uganda, British East Africa, and Kenya.
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.
A major shift of political power in Sudan started with street protests throughout Sudan on 16 December 2018 That resulted in the overthrow of the dictator Omar Al-Basheer. The Sudanese Revolution took over 38 weeks to achieve its demands with over 300 casualties and +1200 arrests. Fire in the Nile is a documentary about how the people dealt with the government and how to protest until their demands have been granted.
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.