‘I want to keep dreaming,’ says Sudanese actress Eiman Yousif 

“I knew about Goodbye Julia being accepted at Cannes on Thursday 13 April 2023. I was so happy. I felt that I had achieved something. I wanted to celebrate with my family, friends. Unfortunately, just two days later, the war erupted,” Eiman Yousif, one of two lead actresses of the Sudanese film, tells The Africa Report about the day when fighting erupted in Khartoum in 2023.

“My life has changed drastically, so did the lives of so many people in Sudan,” she says while seated at a coffee shop close to her new home in Cairo.

Goodbye Julia toured the world and continues to be screened at international festivals, scooping many awards and nominations. It was also Sudan’s official submission for the 96th Academy Awards (2024).

Directed by Mohamed Kordofani, Goodbye Julia had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival (2023), on 20 May 2023, becoming Sudan’s first-ever film to compete in Cannes and winning the Freedom Prize.

The film revolves around two women who strike a friendship against all odds. Mona (Eiman Yousif), a Muslim singer from North Sudan’s upper-middle-class, and Julia (Siran Riyak), a Christian woman from an underprivileged community in Southern Sudan.

“The film’s characters are typical representatives of our society,” says Yousif. She explains how the film is steeped in the societal intricacies of the country and highlights its many divisions.

“The political situation is the backdrop of the film, yet the driving force is the social component: the customs, traditions, people’s convictions, relations between them, etc. They all form the most honest picture of Sudanese realities to the international scene. But Goodbye Julia is also an important mirror for the Sudanese people. We need to look at ourselves,” Yousif says.

The plot of Goodbye Julia takes place during Sudan’s turbulent six-year road to the 2011 South Sudan independence referendum. The film’s shooting fell on yet another stormy period of the country: the ousting of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir during the protests of 2021-2022. The demonstrations and teargas filling Khartoum’s streets proved challenging during the filming.

Then came news of the Cannes nomination… marred with war.

Sudan war ‘will take a week, or two’

“Due to French visa arrangements, I had to leave for Egypt. Though people thought that the war would take a week or two, I was very worried, so I insisted that my family join me.” Two weeks following the eruption of war, Yousif’s mother, two sisters with their husbands, and seven children embarked on a long journey to Egypt.

“We were moving from one city to another, through Dongola and Wadi Halfa [on the border with southern Egypt] and to Cairo. We were a group of 13 people and it was hard to find cars to take us, and our luggage. My father is still in Sudan, devoted to his homeland. He only moved from Khartoum to Shendi [150 km northeast of Khartoum]. Other family members joined us in Cairo.”

 There is nothing I can return to. I want to achieve many things. I want to keep dreaming. There is no longer a future for me in Sudan. If the war ends today, I would still go to visit. This was not the right way to say goodbye

Months into the family’s stay in Cairo, they knew that their house in Khartoum had been robbed. “The Rapid Support Forces [RSF] take over many apartments, houses that have not been destroyed. They take everything, clothes, furniture, valuables… They’ve robbed many houses, across much of Khartoum.”

Meet Eiman Yousif, a young #Sudanese revolutionary who stood up for change in the December 2018 protests, the begining of the revolution in #Sudan. She's also making waves in the film industry, starring in #GoodbyeJulia, premiered yesterday at #CannesFilmFestival2023 pic.twitter.com/Mgx2GX8qap

— Ahmed Omer (@Ahmed_Shaweesh) May 21, 2023

‘Not the right way to say goodbye’

Sudan remains very present in Yousif’s mind. She still recalls how hopeful she was, joining the protests in 2018, or even leading some of them, walking with many women who were no longer afraid, even if it meant finding herself in trouble.

“We were fighting for a change, for our rights. Now that many of us had to leave the country, all we can do is to become stronger outside Sudan.”

In Cairo, instead of celebrating the film’s success, she tries to rebuild her life. She participates in talks about Goodbye Julia or Sudanese cinema. Most recently, she sat on one of the jury panels of the Aswan International Women Film Festival (20-25 April). Unfortunately, she can no longer join Goodbye Julia’s international screenings, since “at this stage, if I leave Egypt, I might not be able to re-enter the country, and I cannot return to Sudan”.

“There is nothing I can return to. I want to achieve many things. I want to keep dreaming. There is no longer a future for me in Sudan. If the war ends today, I would still go to visit. This was not the right way to say goodbye.”