7:30 Wednesday, February 28th
137 Isenberg School of Management
UMass Amherst
Goodbye Julia
(2023, Mohamed Kordofani, South Sudan, 120 min, in Arabic w/ English subtitles)
The film delves into the recurring wars and enduring divisions among communities in Sudan. The narrative unfolds the story of two women embodying the complex relationship and disparities between northern and southern Sudanese communities. Set against the backdrop of Khartoum during the final years of Sudan’s unity, just before the 2011 separation of South Sudan, the film masterfully weaves together the personal and the political. Mona, an upper middle-class former popular singer from the North, resides with her husband Akram and grapples with feelings of guilt over the death of a southern man. In an attempt to alleviate her conscience, she hires Julia, the unsuspecting widow of the deceased, as her maid. Mohamed Kordofani presents to us a personal and intimate story framed within a historical event that divided the country, compelling thousands of citizens to leave their homes in an atmosphere of hatred and confrontation. Goodbye Julia explores the intricacies of their relationship against the socio-political context of Sudan, showcasing its critical and sustained relevance.
Film Screening
Wednesday, February 28th
Free and open to the public
Introduction by Rhonda Cobham-Sander (Professor in the Departments of English and Black Studies at Amherst College)
Co-Sponsored by: Black Studies Amherst College
C. Rhonda Cobham-Sander
Rhonda Cobham-Sander grew up in the Caribbean at a time when some of the best-known writers from that region were making a name for themselves in the world. “One of Derek Walcott’s plays was the first grown-up theater performance I attended,” she recalls. There was a huge cultural ferment in the Caribbean during the 1970s, a sense that you were living through the emergence of a major literary tradition. It was in the air.” Cobham-Sander teaches Caribbean and African literature in the Departments of English and Black Studies at Amherst College. Her courses on “Childhood in Caribbean and African Literature,” “Issues of Gender in African Literature,” “Anglophone Caribbean Poetry” and “The Creole Imagination” reflect her interest in literary history and issues of gender. “I’m interested in how people generate new cultural forms in difficult spaces,” she says. Her most recent courses, “Digital Africas” and “Panama Silver, Asian Gold,” integrate Digital Humanities approaches into the study of Caribbean and African literature. She also teaches two of the three core courses in Black Studies” – “Introduction to Black Studies” and “Research Methods,” – as well as the introductory English courses, “Representing Illness” and “Reading, Writing, and Teaching.”