This is one of the most successful and interesting of the surviving Kinemacolor films. Intriguingly detailed and artfully composed, the film is also notable for its display of human skin tones. Although one may be wary of racial labelling that could denigrate its subjects, the accurate reproduction of skin colour was considered to be the ultimate test of a colour system, photographic or cinematographic. If you could get the faces right, then the rest of the film would convince, and Kinemacolor’s faces always convince. The presence of European tourists at this location on the present day border between Egypt and Sudan only adds to the richness of a piquant piece of documentary observation.

Luke McKernan