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THE fight for survival by a displaced people determined to keep their traditions alive has been captured on film by TV producer Marco Morelli.
Mr Morelli, an Italian who lives in Juffair, set out on a rickety riverboat down the River Nile with a colleague, a cameraman, a tour guide and a couple of video cameras.
By boat, ferry and jeep they travelled from Aswan in Egypt to the river plains of Sudan.
Their aim was to document the ancient traditions and music of the disappearing Nubian civilisation.
The result of their voyage in 2005 is a documentary, Memories of Utopia - a film that chronicles the cultural perseverance of an entire uprooted ethnic group.
Early next month the film will be screened for the first time in Bahrain at the Coral Beach Club on the Al Fateh Corniche.
"It was a way to capture the traditions, music and memories of a people whose culture is disappearing," said Marco, who along with his co-director, Najla Rizk, a TV producer from Cairo, will speak at the screening.
"It was a beautiful, moving experience. The people, the atmosphere and their culture were incredible. Through their music you can understand their history and the nostalgia they feel for their lost lands."
Egypt's construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s flooded Nubian villages on both sides of the Egypt-Sudan border, and forced more than 90,000 people into new settlements.
The construction of the dam was a major blow to the Nubian way of life which had persevered since 2300 BC on land that stretched for more than 700 kilometres along the Nile.
The main Nubian city Wadi Halfa is now submerged by the Aswan reservoir that Egyptians call Lake Nasser and the Sudanese call Lake Nubia.
Most ethnic Nubians in Egypt were relocated to villages north of Aswan, and, in Sudan, a military dictatorship forced 50,000 people to a new city, New Halfa, in the east where many died of malaria and other diseases.
The community fractured and thousands migrated to the city.
However, a handful of villages remained on the Nile and over the years some Nubians have returned to the few settlements that escaped the floods.
Marco and Najla sought out these pockets of perseverance, recorded their music and filmed their traditions.
"Their music is ancient and it infuses every part of Nubian life. But it has changed since the dam. They are people whose lives were centred around the Nile and now everything they had known has transformed," said Marco.
It was the story of one man's determination to keep the traditions of the Nubian civilisation alive that inspired Najla and Marco to make the film.
Shortly after the 1997 massacre of 62 tourists in Luxor, Najla was exploring the deserted temple at Abu Simble.
"No one was there apart from a tour guide and a handful of tourists," she explained. "The guide was a Nubian called Fikri El Kachif. He told me about a traditional Nubian house he was building, stone by stone, and his desire to preserve his culture's memories and customs."
Aged nine Fikri - who the film follows - was forced to leave his riverside village for a desert settlement.
Later, in order to return to his roots he obtained a job as a tour guide, teaching tourists about the ancient Nubian art at Abu Simble.
Over the years Najla became friends with Fikri who introduced her to Nubians living in Kom Ombo and Aswan, and she developed the idea of telling their story and discovering the lost lands that they referred to as a 'utopia.'
While working for Orbit TV she met Marco and they agreed to plough their savings into making the film.
With little outside funding, borrowed equipment and a limited budget the pair headed to Egypt.
They met with Fikri and together with some local fishermen they started their journey down the Nile.
"It was a tiny little motorboat that would break down every half hour so it was a slow but incredible journey," explained Marco.
They explored the culture of the displaced Nubians of Egypt and captured breathtaking landscapes, before travelling to Sudan.
"Neither Najla nor I had been to Sudan and we didn't know what to expect. But everywhere we went the people were very warm and hospitable and always offered us food. In one village the chief welcomed us and that evening by candle light everyone started to play music. It was a beautiful atmosphere," said Marco.
Fikri who himself is a talented musician introduced them to scores of Nubian musicians. Sayed Gayer, one of the culture's most renowned musicians died shortly after the film was made.
"He had such charisma and such presence. It was incredibly sad because I think ours was the last interview he ever did," explained Marco.
The film is filled with the urgent sounds of traditional Nubian drumming... and the ancient songs that are struggling to survive.
"Song after song is being forgotten," says Fikri's son in the film. But the pioneers who returned to their lands and those who refused to leave are keeping the culture and traditions alive, explains Najla.
She and Marco interviewed people who have moved countless times to higher ground to escape flooding but whose determination to stay by the Nile is firm.
Even those who have emigrated to big cities like Khartoum are working to keep the memories of their homeland and their music from vanishing.
"Their struggle to maintain their music, language and traditions was peaceful, non-violent and yet with a force and insistence that emphasised the spirit that had impressed me from the beginning," explained Najla at a screening of the film in Washington DC, US.
After their trip, Marco had to distil more than 30 hours of footage down to 52 minutes, and the result is a fascinating and beautiful journey into the communal resistance of a people who refuse to disappear.
The screening at the Coral Beach Club will open with music by a traditional Bahriani band, headed by the celebrated musician Mohammed bin Faris.
"There are parallels between the two types of music," explained Marco, "I have met the Bahraini musicians and I felt the same feelings that I did when I listened to the Nubian musicians. They are speaking of their history."
