For the first time in its history, Sudanese feature film ‘You Will Die at 20’ directed by Amjad Abu Alala won the Best Narrative Feature Film award at El Gouna Film Festival’s third edition. This is the first Sudanese narrative feature film to ever participate in the festival. Its international debut was in late August during the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Luigi De Laurentiis Award and was nominated for Fedeora Award. ‘You will Die at 20’ also participated in the internationally renowned Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) earlier in September. Inspired by Sudanese folktales, the film follows a prophecy of a child who was augured to die at the age of 20. On the Simaya, the naming ceremony of her firstborn child’s naming ceremony, Sakina, played by Islam Mubark receives a devastating prophecy by a traveling sheikh who announced that her son, Muzamil, who is also the protagonist in the film, would die in two decades. Muzamil, played by Moatasem Rashid then as a teen by Mustafa Shehata, means, “wrapped in clothes” after his forecasted future. His mother Sakina mourns over her son’s life while she raises…
Sudanese Film ‘You Will Die at 20’ Wins Best Narrative Feature Film at GIFF
September 29, 2019
