Kordofani frames this as a universal invitation to a shared conversation about freedom and truth, aiming to bridge the personal and political for mainstream audiences.
Insiders whisper that the 'Goodbye Julia' director is aggressively pivoting from art-house darling to Hollywood player, explicitly seeking US partners because his last film failed to crack the American market.
Film is set in 1983 Khartoum; 'Goodbye Julia' won the Un Certain Regard Freedom Prize and 65 other awards; Kordofani is currently based in Nairobi due to the war in Sudan.
Kordofani is done being niche. He’s bringing Sharia law and severed hands to the US mainstream, and he’s bringing receipts.
Mohamed Kordofani is not here to play small anymore. The Sudanese filmmaker, whose debut 'Goodbye Julia' made history as the first Sudanese feature in the official Cannes selection, is currently at Rome’s MIA Market (Oct. 19-23) aggressively hunting for U.S. partners for his follow-up, 'About Love & September Laws.' After his first film struggled to break into the lucrative U.S. and U.K. markets, Kordofani has made it clear: he wants wider audiences, and he’s willing to build the bridges himself to get them.
This isn't just about art; it's about survival and visibility for a narrative he feels is being stolen by silence and war. The project, produced by his own outfit Klozium Studios (launched in 2020 with co-producer Khalid Awad), is a period drama set in 1983 Khartoum. It follows Carter, an African American journalist and former Black Panther, who arrives to revive a struggling newspaper.
He reunites with Nouri, an idealistic doctor and old friend, but things get messy when Carter falls for Fatin, his translator, who happens to be Nouri’s ex-wife. The romance collides with the imposition of Sharia law, leading to a high-stakes moral dilemma when Nouri refuses a court order to amputate a thief’s hand and faces the death sentence. It’s a plot thick with political intrigue and personal betrayal, exactly the kind of 'morality thriller' that Variety’s Jessica Kiang praised in her rave review of his previous work.
Kordofani is reuniting the core creative team that helped 'Goodbye Julia' scoop the Un Certain Regard Freedom Prize and 65 other international plaudits, including executive producer Lupita N'yongo. The new film features cinematographer Pierre De Villiers, editor Heba Osman, and sound designer Rana Eid. But the real tea is in the director's strategy.
Speaking to Variety, Kordofani admitted, 'Even before ‘Goodbye Julia,’ I’ve always wanted to make films that are for the mainstream but still hold artistic value.' He is explicitly looking for partners who can 'build a bridge to the United States,' noting that since the film has an American lead and is predominantly in English, he needs to start casting and marketing for a U.S. journey during development, not just post-production.
Now based in Nairobi after being forced to flee Sudan amid the ongoing war, Kordofani carries the weight of his homeland’s narrative. 'Living apart from my family, I continue to…search for purpose through filmmaking,' he said. He views 'About Love & September Laws' as a platform to engage the Western world not as an outsider, but as an equal partner in a conversation about 'freedom, sacrifice, love and truth-seeking.' With the film having already won a trio of prizes at the Red Sea Film Festival’s industry Souk Awards last December, the momentum is there.
But will Hollywood bite on a Sudanese period drama about Sharia law and severed hands? Kordofani is betting his career—and his country’s story—on it.
