Goodbye Julia, written and directed by Mohamed Kordofani, will close the 28th Arab Film Festival on Nov. 3rd in Oakland. Get your tickets today.
Goodbye Julia won the Freedom Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023; it was the first-ever Sudanese film to be officially featured in the festival. Goodbye Julia was last year’s Sudan’s Submission to the Oscars.
Wracked by guilt after covering up a murder, Mona—a retired northern Sudanese singer in a tense marriage—tries to make amends by taking in the deceased’s southern Sudanese widow, Julia, and her son, Daniel, into her home. Unable to confess her transgressions to Julia, Mona decides to leave the past behind and adjust to a new status quo, unaware that the country’s turmoil may find its way into her home and put her face to face with her sins.
Psst, if you would like to learn more about the History of Sudanese Cinema, Deena Ramadan wrote about it on our blog.
Jessica Kiang wrote in her review of Goodbye Julia in Variety “With conflict currently erupting in Sudan, one could be forgiven for approaching Mohamed Kordofani‘s ‘Goodbye Julia,’ which takes place in Khartoum during the six years prior to the 2011 secession of South Sudan, as a worthy, topical history lesson. And it certainly does have merit as a primer for the class, ethnic and religious unrest that besets the troubled state. But what actually transpires is far more engaging, in the vein of Asghar Farhadi, wherein a tight, high-concept moral core unravels into strands of widening, deepening social consequence. Telling the story of a fraught friendship between two very different women, Kordofani’s intelligent, compassionate scripting ensures that the political never overwhelms the personal. Yet it also illuminates just how well the fault lines that divide a nation can map onto the rifts within a human heart divided against itself.”
You can read the full review here, but please be warned that it contains spoilers.
Goodbye Julia
Written & Directed by MOHAMED KORDOFANI
Starring EIMAN YOUSIF, SIRAN RIAK, NAZAR GOMA
Run Time: 120 minutes
Year: 2023
Country: Sudan
Language: Arabic
About the Director, Mohamed Kordofani
MOHAMED KORDOFANI is a Sudanese aircraft engineer turned filmmaker.
He made a number of short films, including NYERKUK, which won the Black Elephant Award for best Sudanese Film and the NAAS Award for best Arab film at Carthage Film Festival in 2017.
He is the Co-founder of Klozium Studios; a production house based in Khartoum that provides video production services and supports independent filmmakers and artists.
In 2023 Kordofani’s debut feature film Goodbye Julia premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded the Prix de la Liberté and also celebrated for being the first-ever Sudanese film to be officially featured in the festival.
Goodbye Julia will screen on Nov. 3rd in Oakland.
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