About the Film
Despite the recent resurgence of Sudanese cinema, its directors are trying to freeze time through their films to convey the major changes that have taken place in their country in recent years. In his feature debut, Goodbye Julia, Mohamed Kordofani offers a glimpse into a heavy chapter in Sudan's recent history: the country's division.
The title suggests that we are in for a tragic film about a traditional love story that ends in separation, while Kordofani gives us a film that is indeed tragic, but about a country that ends up divided.
It is difficult to choose specific characters or to pinpoint a moment in time to analyze the extent of Sudan's division. However, the effort that Kordofani makes to choose the right characters is certainly commendable. Through the characters of Julia, a Christian from the south, and Mona, a Muslim from the north, we witness the escalation of tensions between Sudanese people and the clear division that has become commonplace among the people of one nation.
By choosing two women as the protagonists of his film, the director allows us to see the emotional and human side of the Sudanese people, as well as their attempts to find a solution to the polarization. This contrasts with the male characters in the film, who have a tendency to use violence and see separation as a solution rather than a problem.
This is why we find that Julia and Mona are mostly trying to triumph over life itself and reject differences, even with the bitterness that this bias towards the future carries. Unlike many films that deal with two characters on opposite sides of a conflict, Kordofani does not resort to a scale to present his characters in the same way, with the same percentage of positives and negatives. Rather, he presents his vision of what happened during that period, which necessarily included many victims and few winners.
Andrew Mohsen
