The fiction feature film, Goodbye Julia is the first Sudanese film to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival. The world premiere of the film will take place on 20 May 2023 as part of the festival’s Un Certain Regard section.
The film, which is Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s feature debut, marks the first feature from Sudan to bow from the Croisette and takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan. ‘Goodbye Julia’ is a fiction feature film about two women who represent the complicated relationship and differences between Northern and Southern Sudanese communities. The story takes place in Khartoum during the last years of Sudan as a united country.
Mohamed Kordofani is s Sudanese filmmaker who made Nyerkuk, Kejers Prison, and A Tour In Love Republic. He has won several awards such as 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.
The film was produced by Station Films’ Amjad Abu Alala, Sudanese filmmaker and director of “You Will Die at Twenty,” which won the Venice Film Festival’s Lion of the Future award for best first feature in 2019.
Prominent French arthouse distributor, ARP Sélection acquired “Goodbye Julia” from pan-Arab distributor MAD Solutions, which moved into international sales with the title. ARP’s most recent titles include Jerzy Skolimowski Oscar-nominated “EO,” Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” and Jafar Panahi’s “No Bears,” winner of the Special Jury Prize at Venice last year.
“We were extremely moved by the beauty, intensity, narrative power and the emotion rising from this debut film, which positions Sudan on the map of world cinema. We are also proud to start a new collaboration with MAD Solutions, one of the leading distribution and sales agent companies in the Middle East.”
– said Michèle Halberstadt of ARP in a statement.
The co-founders of MAD Solutions, Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab believe that the selection of “Goodbye Julia” marks a “turning point for the Sudanese film industry.”
