The opening scenes of Hajooj Kuka’s film, Beats of the Antonov, are as surreal as they are uplifting. As families scramble for cover against the government’s Antonov bomber planes, which continue their reign of terror on the people of the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains in southern Sudan, the unlikely sound of giggling cuts through the drone and crackle of destruction.

“The laughter is always there,” says the documentary’s narrator. “People laugh despite the catastrophe as they realise they are not hurt.”