BY: Mirvat Elhanafy
In a continuation of its remarkable success journey, Mohamed Kordofani’s captivating Sudanese drama GOODBYE JULIA just clinched two awards at the recently concluded Ibiza International Film Festival — a Distribution Award and the Critics Award — further solidifying its position as an outstanding work of art.
The multiple-award-winning film has also been gracing more esteemed international film festivals recently as part of its prolonged festival tour, leaving audiences in awe and captivating hearts and minds at the Baghdad, Pune, Dublin, and Luxor — where it won Best Film — international film festivals. Moreover, the film will soon screen at the Hebden Bridge Picture House on Friday, March 15th, at 3:20 pm.
Before that, GOODBYE JULIA mesmerized audiences at 25 international film festivals and award ceremonies, including the BFI London Film Festival, Septimius Awards, Festival Paysages de Cinéastes, and Chicago International Film Festival, and was Sudan’s official submission for Best Foreign Feature at the Academy Awards.
Throughout this long journey on the road, the film amassed 25 awards, starting with the coveted Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard Freedom Prize and including several Best Film prizes. Director Korodofani also recently won Variety Magazine’s MENA Talent of the Year at the sixth El Gouna Film Festival.
GOODBYE JULIA follows Mona, a northern Sudanese retired singer in a tense marriage wracked by guilt after covering up a murder who 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.
GOODBYE JULIA stars Eiman Yousif, Siran Riak — the former Ms. South Sudan — Nazar Goma, and Ger Duany; is written and directed by Kordofani; produced by Station Films’ acclaimed Sudanese filmmaker Amjad Abu Alala — the director of Sudan’s first-ever submission to the Academy Awards YOU WILL DIE AT TWENTY — in collaboration with producer Mohamed Al-Omda, who co-produced Yemen’s Berlin International Film Festival selection THE BURDENED; and executive produced by the Marvel-famous star Lupita Nyong’o.
A true example of Arab-European collaboration, the film is also co-produced by Baho Bakhsh and Safei Eldin Mahmoud (Red Star Films), Michael Henrichs (Die Gesellschaft), Khaled Awad and Mohamed Kordofani (Klozium Studios), Marc Irmer (Dolce Vita), Faisal Baltyuor (Cinewaves Films), Ali El-Arabi (Ambient Light), Adham El-Sherif (CULT), and Issraa Elkogali Häggström (RiverFlower), while MAD Solutions handles the film’s worldwide sales.
Kordofani is a Sudanese filmmaker whose short film NYERKUK won the Black Elephant Award for Best Sudanese Film, NAAS Award for Best Arab Film at the Carthage Film Festival, Jury Award at the Oran International Arab Film Festival, and Arnone-Belavite Pellegrini Award at the FCAAA in Milan.
His second short KEJERS PRISON was screened during the Sudanese revolution at the sit-in square in front of thousands of protesters, and his documentary A TOUR IN LOVE REPUBLIC was the first pro-revolution film to be broadcast on Sudan’s national TV.
His last film was THIS IS SUDAN, which was commissioned by Sudan’s former prime minister Abdallah Hamdok to promote Sudan’s potential for investment.
