Sightlines · reception

How Goodbye Julia was received

2023 · Mohamed Kordofani · Goodbye Julia on Sightlines

The arc

It premiered at Cannes 2023 as the first Sudanese film ever in the festival's official selection — weeks after civil war erupted back home, which turned a festival debut into something closer to a dispatch, and its stature as the flagship of new Sudanese cinema has only grown since.

Its footprint

Alongside You Will Die at Twenty, it's become the entry point to Sudanese cinema for international audiences — a film festivals and critics reach for whenever Sudan's war is in the news, made more poignant by the fact that war-torn Sudan itself had almost nowhere left to screen it.

Where it stands

A festival-circuit landmark and Un Certain Regard Freedom Prize winner that's fast becoming the 'you must have seen this' title of Sudan's tiny but rising film wave.

Did you know? Director Mohamed Kordofani was a licensed aircraft engineer who taught himself filmmaking and eventually left aviation to make this, his debut feature — which went on to become Sudan's official Oscar submission.