Goodbye Julia

Goodbye Julia (وداعاً جوليا) is a 2023 Sudanese drama film directed by Mohamed Kordofani. It is Kordofani's first feature film and the first movie from Sudan ever to be presented in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival.

Goodbye Julia was selected by the Sudanese National Committee operating in exile to compete for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards, but was later not included in the shortlist.

Plot
Goodbye Julia tells the story of two women who represent the complicated relationship and differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities. It takes place in Khartoum during the last years of Sudan as a united country, shortly before the 2011 separation of South Sudan. Mona, a Muslim and former popular singer from the North, who lives with her husband Akram, seeks to attenuate her feelings of guilt for causing the death of a southern man by employing Julia, a Christian and his unsuspecting widow, as her maid.

Cast

 * Eiman Yousif as Mona
 * Siran Riak as Julia
 * Nazar Gomaa as Akram
 * Ger Duany as Majier

Background
Sudanese filmmaker Mohamed Kordofani lives in Bahrain and worked as an aviation engineer for many years before embarking on a career as a largely self-taught filmmaker. For his first 2015 short film Gone for Gold, he was distinguished as best director with the Sudanese Taharqa International Award for Arts. His second short film, Nyerkuk (2016), received several distinctions, including the Network of Alternative Arab Screens (NAAS) Award at the Carthage Film Festival, the Jury Award at the Oran International Arabic Film Festival, and the Black Elephant Award of the Sudan Independent Film Festival.

Among other project development grants, the film received support from the Beirut-based Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), the El Gouna Film Festival in Egypt, the Swedish Malmö Arab Film Festival and the Red Sea Fund in Saudi Arabia.

Main roles were played by Sudanese singer and actress Eiman Yousif and Siran Riak, a former Miss South Sudan and fashion model born in today's South Sudan, who never before acted in a film. Commenting on the social context of his film, Kordofani said: "'The racism that was practiced for many decades from most Northern Arabs, government and people, was a major reason for the southerners choosing to secede. I consider Goodbye Julia a call for reconciliation and a spotlight on the social dynamics that led to the separation of the South.'"The film was produced by Dubai-born and -based Sudanese film director and screenwriter Amjad Abu Alala, whose 2019 drama film You Will Die at Twenty won the Lion of the Future Award for best debut film at the Venice Film Festival as well as the Golden Star for best narrative film at the El Gouna Film Festival. Further, this film was Sudan's first ever submission to the Academy Awards. Goodbye Julia also was co-produced by a number of Sudanese, Egyptian, German, French, Swedish and Saudi Arabian film production companies.

Owing to challenging political conditions and lack of infrastructure for cinematography, shooting of the scenes took 40 days from 6 November to 15 December 2022. The musical score by Sudanese musician Mazin Hamid was recorded during the civil protests in Khartoum. It includes music of Sudan referring to both communities, such as a song by northern songwriter Sayed Khalifa and by a choir in a southern Christian church.

In an interview with NPR network, Kordofani talked about his personal experience as a northern Sudanese with the discrimination towards southerners, his feeling of guilt and motivation to make this film just before the outbreak of the devastating military conflict that started on 15 April 2023:

"Of course, I'm going to face a lot of hardship and criticism and controversy once the film screens because not a lot of people will like how the northerners are portrayed in the film. [...] No one in the film is depicted as wholly good or wholly bad because I do understand that even the northerners are victims of their societies and their communities and the values that have been passed on to them through the generations. So, I am able to empathize with all characters in the film. Yet I can point out where I think the problem lies."

International release
Goodbye Julia premiered with an audience of 1,000 spectators on 20 May 2023 in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. The screening and the following post-premiere Q&A with the cast and crew, including comments on the ongoing 2023 Sudan conflict, received standing ovations. Further, Goodbye Julia was also shown in more than 30 international film festivals, including the BFI London Film Festival, Karlovy Vary, Melbourne, Chicago, Warsaw, Hamburg and the Montreal International Black Film Festival.

In September 2023, Goodbye Julia was nominated as Sudan's candidate for Best International Feature Film at the 96 Academy Awards, to be announced on 10 March 2024. This nomination received the support of Black Panther actress Lupita Nyong'o as executive producer.

On 25 October 2023, Goodbye Julia was launched commercially in 20 Egyptian cinemas, selling a record number of box office tickets for foreign films in Egypt in its first two weeks. Starting on 8 November, it has been shown in Paris and more than 20 other cities in France, and on 7 December, it opened in cinemas in the Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia. In April 2024, the film premiered in Kenya as part of Aflam-Sudan, a weeklong screening of Sudanese films hosted by Unseen Nairobi. The same month, Goodbye Julia received its Jordanian premier in Amman as part of the Royal Film commission's Women's Film Week

International reception
Goodbye Julia received overwhelmingly positive critical responses. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received 100% based on 16 reviews of international film critics.

Reviews of the premiere were similarly positive, highlighting the film's dramatic storytelling of personal relationships before a wider social and historical background. Writing for Cineuropa portal, film critic Fabien Lemercier said: "Mohamed Kordofani offers up wonderful snapshots, overviews and explanations of all the nuances of the acute Sudanese situation of the time. [...] It makes for a film of impeccable quality, marking the birth of an incredibly promising filmmaker and confirming the emergence of a 7th art in Sudan."

In a similar way, The Hollywood Reporter wrote:

"Goodbye Julia will bring to life Sudanese issues for audiences. Kordofani's fine direction balances the film's multiple modes: It's a drama, with shades of a thriller and a sense of its own politics. With its classic, accessible style, Goodbye Julia will surely rally more support for the cinema of Sudan, a nation full of stories that need to be told about its past and present."In her review for Variety magazine, Jessica Kiang remarked on the story's social background, the difference of the main characters and the photographic quality: "Telling the story of a fraught friendship between two very different women, Kordofani's intelligent, compassionate scripting ensures that the political never overwhelms the personal. [...] Both women are equally flattered by Pierre de Villiers's warm, close-up-rich photography, but Julia remains the less well-developed. Then again, despite her relative poverty and being on the sharp end of every -ism (colorism, racism, sexism, ethnocentrism) that bedevils Khartoum at this moment in time, Julia has from the outset the freer spirit; it is Mona who is most in need of change."

Writing for BBC News, Shereen Sherief likewise praised both the film's scenario and photography and gave special credit to the soundtrack, as well as to the two main actresses, who "explore the deep-seated tensions and divisions that resulted in the split of Sudan."

"What makes Goodbye Julia truly remarkable is the level of artistry exhibited throughout the film. It is astonishing to think that this is Mohammed Kordofani's directorial debut, especially considering his lack of formal training in cinema. The high standards of craftsmanship are evident in every frame, from the visually stunning cinematography to the nuanced performances by the cast."In May 2024, Goodbye Julia was awarded the Prix Jean Renoir des lycéens, pronounced by a national jury of secondary schools and sponsored by the French Ministry of Education. Following this, the film will be the subject of film studies for more than 400.000 students in France during the academic year 2024/25.

Reception in Arabic media
Goodbye Julia was nominated as best Arab film of 2023 in several categories by the Critics Awards for Arab Films. Managed by the Arab Cinema Centre in Cairo, these distinctions are awarded by 209 critics from 72 countries, and the winners are scheduled to be announced at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2024.

In Cairo, Wael Khairy, editor of SceneNow website, praised the film's message of the racism that Southerners are confronted with in their daily lives. Despite this, he also wrote that "The opening scenes in Khartoum are filmed with the tension of a ticking time bomb, but as it approaches the second and third acts, it stumbles and treads familiar ground."

In their December 2023 review of the 10 best Arab films of the year, Al Jazeera listed Goodbye Julia in first place. The review praised the film's storyline, complex main characters, musical score and, most of all, Kordofani's script and directing.

A January 2024 review in Sudanese online magazine Andariya stressed the gender-specific aspects of the film. Thus, it emphasized "the rare and precious voice that shows how the pangs of patriarchy put their hands on the lives of women." Quoting Mona's remark in the film: “Most men are selfish and with a heart of stone.”, the review concluded:

"Kordofani has painted the characters of all men, except the benevolent elderly photographer, as committing or heading towards violence. They go rampant and form deadly mobs in the street, set fire to poor people’s shacks, evict women, and push them in the back of their cars to imprison them. At one time or another, most male characters end up with a weapon in their hand, ready to commit a crime."