We Who Remain

We Who Remain

Download the NYT VR app to watch this virtual reality film, transporting you into the heart of a forgotten conflict in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan.

In 2011, war broke out between the Sudan government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. Today, outsiders rarely venture to this region. Humanitarian aid has been blocked, and Sudanese journalists are banned from covering the war, facing potential imprisonment for doing so.

In collaboration with Emblematic Group and Nuba Reports, the Times presents We Who Remain, an immersive virtual reality film that takes the viewer into the heart of this forgotten conflict amid an active fighting season. The film weaves together the lives of four people – a student, a rebel soldier, a journalist, and a mother – who struggle to improve their lives in the midst of a relentless war.

Jordania, a student who has survived repeated bombings, takes us inside her school. Al-Bagir, a father, left university to become a mobile unit commander on the front lines. He hopes his son will not have to follow the same path. The journalist Musa John, who earned the nickname “Mosquito” because he buzzes here and there, is recovering from an injury suffered in a recent bombing. And Hannan, a mother who is struggling to feed her children, shelters in a makeshift home on the mountainside after her town was destroyed by the fighting.

The film is a co-production of Emblematic Group and Nuba Reports in collaboration with The New York Times. This 14-minute film is available to watch in a V.R. headset with the NYT VR app for Android or iPhone.