“A perfect balance between an intelligent political and cultural backdrop and a thrilling and highly intimate plot.” (Cineuropa)
Two women forge an unusual friendship across a devastating national divide in this engrossing Sudanese drama that scored a major success at Cannes. Mona, a northern Sudanese who is Arabic and Muslim, is wracked by guilt after covering up a murder. She tries to atone by taking the southern Sudanese widow, Julia, and her son (who are Christians) into her home. Mona attempts to deny the past, and with it, Sudan’s cultural and racial differences, but the country’s turmoil inevitably finds its way into her home. The result is a thriller with social and political overtones, demonstrating the ways that the personal and the political are inextricably intertwined, and playing relentlessly on the fault lines that divide the Sudanese nation.
“A prizewinner in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, Mohamed Kordofani’s well-performed deep cut into Sudan’s recent history unfolds like a morality thriller. Telling the story of a fraught friendship between two very different women, Kordofani’s intelligent, compassionate scripting ensures that the political never overwhelms the personal. Yet it also illuminates just how well the fault lines that divide a nation can map onto the rifts within a human heart divided against itself.” (Variety)
“A gut-wrenching and emotionally rewarding tale of religious persecution compounded by entrenched racism… With the help of an excellent cast, Kordofani proves that it is possible to bear witness to history in a place rarely depicted on screen while framing repercussions as an ever-evolving game of high-stakes emotional chess.” (Screen Daily)
“Kordofani’s fine direction balances the film’s multiple modes: It’s a drama, with shades of a thriller and a sense of its own politics.” (Hollywood Reporter)