Hussein Shariffe

Hussein Shariffe (1934–2005) was a painter, poet and filmmaker born in Omdurman, Sudan. The son of an affluent and influential family Hussein Shariffe was a graduate in Fine Arts from the Slade School of Fine Art and the National Film School in England. His artistic career began as a painter, where he had his first solo exhibitions in London’s Gallery One in 1958 and 1960. Upon graduating from the Slade school of Art, Shariffe painted as well as worked as a part-time lecturer in the College of Fine and Applied Art in the Sudan. It was at this time that he founded a literary and arts periodical entitled Twenty One in 1965. He gave it the symbolic name of Twenty One for the Sudanese Popular Revolution of 21st October 1964, when the military regime of the first dictatorship ruling of Abboud was overturned. The periodical was very progressive for its time with the main aim of bringing forward and inviting a discussion about literacy and art within Africa as well as the existing African Arab dichotomy of the Sudan. In the 1970’s, Shariffe began working on his first cinematographic projects as a director. He initially oversaw an experimental department in the Sudanese State Cooperation for Cinema prior to heading the Film Section in the Department of Culture in the Ministry. The first film that Hussein Shariffe directed was a documentary called the THROWING OF FIRE (1973) a short 11 minutes film about a tribe in the Angassana, southern Blue Nile. In 1974 he began filming for his experimental film THE DISLOCATION OF AMBER (1975). Determined to further pursue his career in filming he then applied to the National Film school in London. He was accepted and completed the editing of the film at the school. In 1979, he directed TIGERS ARE BETTER LOOKING, an adaptation of a short story by Jean Rhys and later, in the 1990s he drew more attention and focus to films about exile, including DIARY IN EXILE, with Egyptian filmmaker Attiyat Al Abanodi (1993), and in 2000 he began filming OF DUST AND RUBIES (LETTERS FROM ABROAD) a film not completed due to the sudden passing of the director in 2005.

Hussein Shariffe (1934–2005) was a painter, poet and filmmaker born in Omdurman, Sudan. The son of an affluent and influential family Hussein Shariffe was a graduate in Fine Arts from the Slade School of Fine Art and the National Film School in England. His artistic career began as a painter, where he had his first solo exhibitions in London’s Gallery One in 1958 and 1960. Upon graduating from the Slade school of Art, Shariffe painted as well as worked as a part-time lecturer in the College of Fine and Applied Art in the Sudan. It was at this time that he founded a literary and arts periodical entitled Twenty One in 1965. He gave it the symbolic name of Twenty One for the Sudanese Popular Revolution of 21st October 1964, when the military regime of the first dictatorship ruling of Abboud was overturned. The periodical was very progressive for its time with the main aim of bringing forward and inviting a discussion about literacy and art within Africa as well as the existing African Arab dichotomy of the Sudan. In the 1970’s, Shariffe began working on his first cinematographic projects as a director. He initially oversaw an experimental department in the Sudanese State Cooperation for Cinema prior to heading the Film Section in the Department of Culture in the Ministry. The first film that Hussein Shariffe directed was a documentary called the THROWING OF FIRE (1973) a short 11 minutes film about a tribe in the Angassana, southern Blue Nile. In 1974 he began filming for his experimental film THE DISLOCATION OF AMBER (1975). Determined to further pursue his career in filming he then applied to the National Film school in London. He was accepted and completed the editing of the film at the school. In 1979, he directed TIGERS ARE BETTER LOOKING, an adaptation of a short story by Jean Rhys and later, in the 1990s he drew more attention and focus to films about exile, including DIARY IN EXILE, with Egyptian filmmaker Attiyat Al Abanodi (1993), and in 2000 he began filming OF DUST AND RUBIES (LETTERS FROM ABROAD) a film not completed due to the sudden passing of the director in 2005.

Hussein Shariffe (1934–2005) was a painter, poet and filmmaker born in Omdurman, Sudan. The son of an affluent and influential family Hussein Shariffe was a graduate in Fine Arts from the Slade School of Fine Art and the National Film School in England. His artistic career began as a painter, where he had his first solo exhibitions in London’s Gallery One in 1958 and 1960. Upon graduating from the Slade school of Art, Shariffe painted as well as worked as a part-time lecturer in the College of Fine and Applied Art in the Sudan. It was at this time that he founded a literary and arts periodical entitled Twenty One in 1965. He gave it the symbolic name of Twenty One for the Sudanese Popular Revolution of 21st October 1964, when the military regime of the first dictatorship ruling of Abboud was overturned. The periodical was very progressive for its time with the main aim of bringing forward and inviting a discussion about literacy and art within Africa as well as the existing African Arab dichotomy of the Sudan. In the 1970’s, Shariffe began working on his first cinematographic projects as a director. He initially oversaw an experimental department in the Sudanese State Cooperation for Cinema prior to heading the Film Section in the Department of Culture in the Ministry. The first film that Hussein Shariffe directed was a documentary called the THROWING OF FIRE (1973) a short 11 minutes film about a tribe in the Angassana, southern Blue Nile. In 1974 he began filming for his experimental film THE DISLOCATION OF AMBER (1975). Determined to further pursue his career in filming he then applied to the National Film school in London. He was accepted and completed the editing of the film at the school. In 1979, he directed TIGERS ARE BETTER LOOKING, an adaptation of a short story by Jean Rhys and later, in the 1990s he drew more attention and focus to films about exile, including DIARY IN EXILE, with Egyptian filmmaker Attiyat Al Abanodi (1993), and in 2000 he began filming OF DUST AND RUBIES (LETTERS FROM ABROAD) a film not completed due to the sudden passing of the director in 2005.

Hussein Shariffe (1934–2005) was a painter, poet and filmmaker born in Omdurman, Sudan. The son of an affluent and influential family Hussein Shariffe was a graduate in Fine Arts from the Slade School of Fine Art and the National Film School in England. His artistic career began as a painter, where he had his first solo exhibitions in London’s Gallery One in 1958 and 1960. Upon graduating from the Slade school of Art, Shariffe painted as well as worked as a part-time lecturer in the College of Fine and Applied Art in the Sudan. It was at this time that he founded a literary and arts periodical entitled Twenty One in 1965. He gave it the symbolic name of Twenty One for the Sudanese Popular Revolution of 21st October 1964, when the military regime of the first dictatorship ruling of Abboud was overturned. The periodical was very progressive for its time with the main aim of bringing forward and inviting a discussion about literacy and art within Africa as well as the existing African Arab dichotomy of the Sudan. In the 1970’s, Shariffe began working on his first cinematographic projects as a director. He initially oversaw an experimental department in the Sudanese State Cooperation for Cinema prior to heading the Film Section in the Department of Culture in the Ministry. The first film that Hussein Shariffe directed was a documentary called the THROWING OF FIRE (1973) a short 11 minutes film about a tribe in the Angassana, southern Blue Nile. In 1974 he began filming for his experimental film THE DISLOCATION OF AMBER (1975). Determined to further pursue his career in filming he then applied to the National Film school in London. He was accepted and completed the editing of the film at the school. In 1979, he directed TIGERS ARE BETTER LOOKING, an adaptation of a short story by Jean Rhys and later, in the 1990s he drew more attention and focus to films about exile, including DIARY IN EXILE, with Egyptian filmmaker Attiyat Al Abanodi (1993), and in 2000 he began filming OF DUST AND RUBIES (LETTERS FROM ABROAD) a film not completed due to the sudden passing of the director in 2005.