Sudanese Film “You Will Die At Twenty” Wins Big at Venice Film Festival

You Will Die At Twenty, a Sudanese film by Sudanese director and screenwriter Amjad Abu Alala, received the Lion of the Future (Luigi de Laurentiis) Award for Best Debut Feature at the 76th Venice International Film Festival on 7 September 2019, becoming the first Sudanese film to win an award at the Italian film festival.

The film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, which took place from 28 August to 7 September 2019. The film is also taking part in the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which is taking place from 5 to 15 September 2019.

#BiennaleCinema2019
Leone del Futuro – Premio Venezia Opera Prima (Luigi De Laurentiis) Lion of the Future / “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film a/to:
You Will Die At 20 di/by Amjad Abu Alala pic.twitter.com/kOcK8E4cRc

— Biennale di Venezia (@la_Biennale) September 7, 2019

Inspired by Sudanese writer Hammour Ziada’s short story, Sleeping at the Foot of the Mountain, You Will Die At Twenty is set in Al Jazirah state, where a mother gives birth to Muzamel in a Sudanese village dominated by Sufi beliefs. When a prophecy by the holy man of the village predicts that he will die at the age of 20, Muzamel grows up surrounded by sympathy, making him feel dead before his time, until Suliman, a cinematographer who has worked in the city, returns to the village. Suliman’s old cinema projector opens a window onto a whole new world for Muzamel. Slowly, he comes to doubt the truth of the prophecy.

You Will Die at Twenty is the debut feature of Abu Alala. Currently based between Qatar, Sudan and Egypt, Abu Alala is a well-known Sudanese filmmaker, director and screenwriter who was born and raised in the UAE. He studied media at United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). Abu Alala has made numerous short films that have been shown at film festivals, including Tina (2009), Coffee and Orange (2004), and Feathers of the Birds (2005). In 2013, Abu Alala won the Best Arabic Theatre Script Award from the Arab Authority for Apple Pies. Currently, Abu Alala is the Head of the Programming Committee of the Sudan Independent Film Festival (SIFF).

Co-written by Abu Alala and Youssef Ibrahim, the film stars Mustafa Shehata, Islam Mubark, Mahmoud Elsaraj, Bunna Khalid and Talal Afifi. 

You Will Die at Twenty is produced by French company Andolfi, Egyptian company Transit Films, Norwegian company Duofilm, and German company Die Gesselschaft, in co-production with Sudanese company Station Film, and Egyptian company Film Clinic, as well as support from l’Aide aux Cinémas du Monde of the CNC and Doha Film Institute (DFI).

What a historic momen for Sudanese cinema! Amjad Abu Alala’s YOU WILL DIE AT TWENTY, a DFI granted film, wins the Lion of the Future Award for Best First Film at the Venice Film Festival, becoming the first ever Sudanese film to do so! #Qatar #Venezia76 pic.twitter.com/7tWn8FIR0A

— Doha Film Institute (@DohaFilm) September 7, 2019

At the Venice International Film Festival, Todd Phillips’ dark supervillain origin story Joker has come up trumps taking the Golden Lion. It’s unprecedented for a superhero-adjacent and a major Hollywood studio production to take the top prize at Venice.

Earlier this year, a Sudanese documentary directed by the award-winning Sudanese independent filmmaker Suhaib Gasmelbari called Talking About Trees received the Berlinale Glashütte Original – Documentary Award (Panorama Audience Award Winner Panorama Dokumente) at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival at a ceremony in the Berlinale Palast on 16 February 2019. The documentary chronicles the efforts of a group of film enthusiasts to revive an old cinema in Sudan and the country’s love of film.

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