Starring: Eiman Yousif, Siran Riak, Nazar Goma, Ger Duany
Distributor: Potential Films
Runtime: 120 mins. Reviewed in Apr 2024
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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Just before the secession of South Sudan, a married former singer from the north seeks redemption for causing the death of a southern man by hiring his oblivious wife as her maid.
A rare film from Sudan, and one which makes audiences realise they need to see more films from Africa, especially those which depict life in Africa and the social, racial and religious issues. Goodbye Julia takes us into the heart of Khartoum in 2005 and the possibilities for peace between the North and the South, then to 2011 with the vote for establishing the new country of South Sudan.
The film was written and directed by Kordofani. From the north, he draws on his own memories and acknowledges the prejudices of the northern Arabic peoples against the southern African tribes. With a strong political background, this is also a story of relationship and friendship, but, sadly, one built on fear and deception.
While the title focuses on Julia (Riak, a former Miss South Sudan and model), there is also an equal focus on Mona (Yousif, a singer). It is the acting debut for both women, and both are absolutely convincing in their roles. Mona has a comfortable lifestyle with her wealthy but patriarchal Arab husband. We see there are tensions in the marriage. In the wider context, we suggestions of protests and violence against the Arabs by the southerners.
It is then we meet Julia, a southerner born in Khartoum, her husband and their son. They are evicted from lodgings, finding tent shelter with family, and then personal tragedy. Perhaps this is enough indication of aspects of the plot, and it is best for audiences to enter emotionally undisturbed into the way that the lives of Mona and Julia come together. One can say there is unforeseen tragedy, emotional pressures on people who have made mistakes, concealment of the truth, fear and a short-sightedness about the consequences of lying.
Mona employs Julia as a maid, inviting her and her son to stay in the house. There is a beautifully deepening friendship between the two women, and the boy is fascinated by Mona’s husband and his woodwork, with the boy showing great talent in this field.
Once the situation is established, the time frame moves from 2005 to 2011, and focuses on the vote for the establishment of South Sudan. The years have passed, the women are friends, the boy is at school, a campaigner for the referendum becomes friendly with Julia and her son. And the vote. Then, as the audience has been waiting, consequences, the truth of the situations is revealed.
While the issue of race is strongly dramatised, the sense of superiority of the Arabs and their dismissal of the southerners as slaves, there is also the dramatisation of the Catholicism of the southerners (statistics indicate that 52% of citizens of Sudan are Catholics, with quite a number of Anglicans and Protestants). There are some sympathetic sequences in a Catholic Church, the choir, indicating possibilities of shared understandings.
In many ways, this is a valuable film in its portrayal of humanity, friendships, betrayals, hopes and reconciliation. And valuable for taking its audience into Sudan.
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