Mizna’s 18th Twin Cities Arab Film Festival closes with a pair of special screenings and a reception (5:30–7 pm) catered by Baba’s.
The festival’s closing-night film by award-winning Sudanese filmmaker Mohamed Kordofani features a retired singer’s attempts to make amends with a widow. Taking place in Khartoum during the last years of Sudan as a united country, Goodbye Julia presages the political and humanitarian crises in the Sudan today, while confronting the polarizing racism and social apartheid in divided Sudanese communities, in an expression of the director’s desire for reconciliation. 2023, Sudan, DCP, in Arabic with English subtitles, 120 min.
Following the screening, director Mohamed Kordofani will be in conversation with fellow Sudanese filmmaker Fatima Wardy.
Twin Cities Arab Film Festival: Closing Day
Showcasing contemporary cinema made by Arab and Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) filmmakers, the full festival runs September 25–29, primarily at the Main Cinema in Minneapolis. For schedule and festival pass information, visit mizna.org.
Bios
Mohamed Kordofani (Arabic: محمد كردفاني, born in Khartoum) is a Sudanese filmmaker whose short film Nyerkuk won the Black Elephant Award for Best Sudanese Film, NAAS Award for Best Arab Film at the Carthage Film Festival, Jury Award at the Oran International Arab Film Festival, and Arnone-Belavite Pellegrini Award at the FCAAA in Milan. His second short Kejers Prison was screened during the Sudanese revolution at the sit-in square in front of thousands of protesters, and his documentary A Tour in Love Republic was the first pro-revolution film to be broadcasted on Sudan’s national TV. Kordofani’s first feature film Goodbye Julia won the Prix de la Liberté (Freedom Award) at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
A woman-led contemporary arts organization for its 25 years, Mizna has promoted experimental approaches to art, literature, and film that question and expand the forms and conceptual frameworks of Arab and SWANA culture. The organization publishes a biannual print literary and art journal, Mizna, and Mizna Online, a digital platform for literary and multidisciplinary work reflecting critically on the current realities of the SWANA region and beyond. Mizna produces the Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, the largest and longest-running SWANA-centered film festival in the Midwest. Mizna also offers readings, film series, performances, public art commissions, and community events that have featured 1000+ local and transnational writers, filmmakers, and artists.
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