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.”

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The co-pilot of an Ethiopian Airlines plane flying from Addis Ababa to Rome has hijacked the aircraft and landed in Geneva, Swiss police say.

The hijacker – who has been arrested – waited for the pilot to go to the toilet to lock himself in the cockpit. He was unarmed. He has requested asylum in Switzerland. 

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