Director, Script, Camera: Hubert Sauper
Editor: Hubert Sauper, Cathie Dambel, Denise Vindevogel
Music: Slim Twig
Sounddesign: Veronika Hlawatsch
Additional Credits: Produktionsleitung: Stephanie Bourdin, Marie Tappero
Producers: Hubert Sauper, Gabriele Kranzelbinder
Production: KGP Kranzelbinder Gabriele Production, Adelante Film
Co-production: Adelante Films (FR)

We Come as Friends is a modern odyssey, a dizzying, scifiesque journey into the heart of Africa. At the moment when the Sudan is being divided into two nations, an old “civilizing” pathology re emerges — that of colonialism, clash of empires, and ever new episodes of bloody (and holy) wars over land and resources. Hubert Sauper leads us into most improbable locations and into people’s thoughts and dreams. Of the 124 submitted films, We Come as Friends was selected for the Oscar documentary feature shortlist 2016.

In an unusual narrative structure, We Come as Friends presents impressions and facts around the founding of the state South Sudan. At times, the way of making contact and reporting seems highly subjective, almost extraterrestrial. This anarchistic-like approach and the images, which follow a disconcerting rhythm, carry a documentary that is both complex and deeply distressing.
(Viennale, Wiener Filmpreis, Jury-Statement)

We Come as Friends embodies its maker and his methods: it is reportage cinema at its most fleet, mischievous, provocative, compassionate and plaintive.
(JIHLAVA International Documentary Film Festival, Best Central and Eastern European Documentary Film, Jury-Statement)