First-time director and actor deliver entrancing Sudanese feature

Outstanding: Fashion model Siran Riak debuts as Julia. Photo / Supplied

Quietly told yet utterly gripping, this Sudanese drama delivers a potent mix of ethical dilemma and human frailty against a backdrop of historical civil war and injustice. Set between 2005 and 2010, in the years leading up to South Sudan’s eventual secession, it’s the impressive feature debut of writer-director Mohamed Kordofani, who casts two mesmerising female leads: singer Eiman Yousif and fashion model Siran Riak, the latter particularly outstanding in her screen debut.

Working-class Southerner Julia (Riak) has only just arrived in Khartoum to build a new life with her husband Santino and young son Daniel when the impoverished family is met by tragedy. Julia is taken in by a rich Arab couple as the house servant to Yousif’s Mona, and over months and years the two women become close companions as Mona strives to provide Daniel with a good upbringing.

But Mona is harbouring a devastating secret from the astute Julia and Mona’s cold and unforgiving husband (a nuanced Nazar Goma). This narrative ticking time-bomb mirrors the literal violence and murder playing out on the fraught streets between two clashing cultures whose fear of the other drives their hatred.

Goodbye Julia was the first Sudanese entry to play in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, and Kordofani’s film (which won the festival’s Freedom Prize) makes for an extraordinary calling card for the former aviation engineer.

With economical pace, the story starts with an accident, a chase and a shooting. It then unfolds through heartfelt conversations between the two very different women as Mona guiltily overpays Julia for her services and Julia encourages Mona – a retired singer whose husband forbids her from performing – to revive her dreams. The director favours long takes and unfussy photography in drawing the audience into gently urgent interactions, rendering these scenes tensely enthralling. Better yet, Kordofani’s script subverts our expectations of how, say, an embittered husband will react, or how a dangerous secret might derail a friendship.

The display of local colour, music and cultural history is also fascinating for any viewer unfamiliar with life in the large pre-partitioned African country. But far from being just a dry, well-intentioned portrait of a foreign land, Goodbye Julia is a personal drama of Farhadi-like intrigue and social commentary.

Rating out of 5: ★★★★½

Goodbye Julia directed by Mohamed Kordofani is in cinemas now.