In the lead-up to the secession of South Sudan, Mona (Eiman Yousif), a well-to-do retired singer from the North, becomes complicit in hushing up the murder of a Southerner at the hands of her overtly prejudiced husband (Nazar Gomaa). Guilt-ridden about her role in catalyzing this turn of events, Mona hires the victim’s unknowing widow Julia (Siran Riak) as her live-in maid in a secret bid at making amends. Whilst a complicated friendship blooms between the two women, the threat of discovery looms ever-present.
Winner of the Un Certain Regard Freedom Prize, Mohamed Kordofani’s artfully composed drama made history this year as the first-ever Sudanese feature to play in Cannes. A sensitive and unflinching examination of the fraught relationship between Sudan’s Arab North and non-Arab South, Goodbye Julia weaves a thoroughly engaging tale of deceit and self-revelation, charting its protagonists’ gradual awakening to the social inequities and inherited legacy of racism that would motivate an entire nation to vote almost unanimously for its separation.
Freedom Prize, Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2023
A prizewinner in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, Mohamed Kordofani’s well-performed deep cut into Sudan’s recent history unfolds like a morality thriller.
Variety
Media Partner
Eiman Yousif, Siran Riak, Nazar Goma, Ger Duany, Stephanos James Peter
Sudan
2023
Panorama
In Arabic with English subtitles
Graphic Violence, Racial Violence
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Amjad Abu Alala, Mohamed Omda, Ali Alarabi
Screenwriter
Mohamed Kordofani
Cinematography
Pierre de Villiers
Editor
Heba Othman
Production Design
Issa Kandil
Original Music
Mazin Hamid
Director
Mohamed Kordofani
Mohamed Kordofani is a Sudanese filmmaker. His debut feature film, Goodbye Julia, won the Freedom Prize after its International Premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival. For his other works, he has also won the NAAS Award for best Arab film at Carthage Film Festival (JCC), The Jury Award at Oran International Arab Film Festival and The Arnone-Belavite Peligrini Award at FCAAA in Milan.
Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre
Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Once Upon a Time in Harlem splices together footage shot by William Greaves in 1972 of a group of Harlem Renaissance luminaries in conversation at Duke Ellington’s townhouse. The film is a living archive of memory, disagreement, style, and Black genius.
Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie
Alex Gibney's doc relates the near-lethal attack on Salman Rushdie in 2022, the writer's painful rehab and recovery, and his reflections on life before, during and after the publication of The Satanic Verses.
Possible Love
Lee Chang-dong’s first film since Burning (2018) is a sardonic, slow-burning satire about two couples: a documentary filmmaker married to a wealthy businessman, and a working-class family struggling to make ends meet after the husband has been laid off.
You Had to Be There
In a strange quirk of fate, the legendary Toronto '72 production of the musical comedy Jesus hit Godspell launched a constellation of comedy stars, all unknown at the time but now known to us as Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber, et al
House of Hope
"House of Hope" is the name of a Waldorf elementary school near Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, founded by Manar and her husband Milad. This documentary follows their efforts to go about their lives before, during, and after the events of October 7.
NAZA
NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.