Goodbye Julia (Africa & Middle East, International)
Key Cast: Eiman Yousif, Ger Duany, Nazar Gomaa, Siran Riak
Director: Mohamed Kordofani
Producer: Amjad Abu Alala, Mohammed Alomda
Screenwriter: Mohamed Kordofani
Cinematographer: Pierre de Villiers
Composer: Mazin Hamid
Company Credit: Distributor: Potential Films
An engrossing moral thriller set against a nation torn in two, which won the inaugural Un Certain Regard Freedom Prize.
Just before the secession of South Sudan, married former singer Mona, who hails from the country’s north, seeks redemption for having caused the death of a southern man by hiring his oblivious wife, Julia, as her maid. Over time, the two women forge an unusual and profound relationship across devastating divides.
Set in Khartoum between 2005 and 2010 – on the tail end of one of the longest civil wars in history – Goodbye Julia is the first Sudanese film to screen as a Cannes official selection. Engineer turned filmmaker Mohamed Kordofani wrote the story as part of his own journey of coming to terms with, and overcoming, his own biases against Southern Sudanese people. Working with award-winning South African DOP Pierre de Villiers, who elevates every frame with his gorgeous cinematography, and an accomplished cast who imbue their characters with empathy and warmth, Kordofani has crafted an extraordinary debut that tells the story of two women who represent the complicated relationship and differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities while handling the divisions of wealth, creed, gender and geography with adroit insight and experience.
“Kordofani’s intelligent, compassionate scripting … illuminates just how well the fault lines that divide a nation can map onto the rifts within a human heart divided against itself.” – Variety