‘Goodbye Julia’ Historic Debut at Cannes Film Festival 2023

Goodbye Julia, the debut feature from Sudanese filmmaker Mohamed Kordofani, has received praise from international filmmakers and critics who attended the screening of the film at the Théâtre Claude Debussy at the Cannes Film Festival 2023 or Festival de Cannes.

The screening of Goodbye Julia included a lively post-premiere Q&A with the cast and crew.

The feature film has been selected to screen at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section, a milestone for Sudan, marking the country’s first ever selection to the internationally renowned festival.

Goodbye Julia follows the divide between Sudan’s north and south. Wracked by guilt after covering up a murder, Mona, a Sudanese retired singer in a tense marriage, tries to make amends by taking in the deceased’s South 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.

The film stars Sudanese actress Eiman Yousif, South Sudanese supermodel Siran Riak, who is making her acting debut in the film, Sudanese actor Nazar Goma and well-known South Sudanese actress Ger Duani.

Riak’s red carpet dress made headlines. She wore a bejeweled pale pink strapless dress with white wings and a hot pink purse. She has been named as one of the best dressed celebrities at the red carpet of Cannes 2023 by Times of India.

The film is produced by award-winning filmmaker Amjad Abu Alala, who became internationally known in 2020 for his award-winning feature film, You Will Die at 20, which became Sudan’s first-ever Oscar submission in 2020. Co-producers are Baho Bakhsh, Safei Eldin Mahmoud, Khaled Awad, Michael Hendricks, Marc Irmer, Faisal Baltyuor, Mohamed Kordofani, Issraa El-Kogali, Ali El Arabi and Adham El Sherif.

Goodbye Julia is written and directed by Kordofani, who is a full-time aircraft engineer and part-time filmmaker, director and cinematographer based in Bahrain. The Sudanese filmmaker founded his own film production house, Kordofani Films, in 2014 to produce commercials or advertisements, corporate videos, music videos, event coverage and more. Kordofani is also an award-winning filmmaker who has accepted the Best Director Award for Gone for Gold. For Nyerkuk, he was received the Network of Alternative Arab Screens (NAAS) award at Carthage Film Festival, the Jury Award at Oran International Film Festival, the Black Elephant Award for Best Sudanese film at the Sudan Independent Film Festival; Pellegrini Award at the 27° African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival Awards in 2017; and multiple awards at film festivals across the world.

The MENA premiere will be held in Egypt as part of the sixth edition of the Gouna Film Festival, which is taking place at the Red Sea resort town of El Gouna from 12 to 20 October 2023.

For more information, visit festival-cannes.com/en/f/goodbye-julia/.

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