PORTENDED TO DIE YOUNG, A BOY AND HIS MOTHER NAVIGATE THE UNCHARTED SPACE BETWEEN COMING-OF-AGE AND FACING THE END IN SUDAN’S FIRST OFFICIAL ENTRY FOR “BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM” IN THE 93RD ACADEMY AWARDS
SYNOPSIS
YOU WILL DIE AT TWENTY follows a child — portended to die at age 20 — as he and his mother navigate the uncharted space between coming of age and facing the end. An exceptional story and only the eighth narrative feature film to be made in Sudan, YOU WILL DIE AT TWENTY follows Muzamil (played first by Moatasem Rashid then as a teen by Mustafa Shehata), whose death at age 20 is prophesied on the day of his birth by a traveling sheik. Growing up with his mother, Sakina (Islam Mubarak), in a small village under the constant loom of death, the young boy becomes increasingly curious about what it means to live beyond his mother’s confines. And, encouraged by local elders, his overprotective mother relents and allows her son to study the Quran with the other children his age. In this newly found freedom, Muzamil finds friends, enemies, love, and tempters, though what he truly seeks is a sense of the present and a chance at the future.
YOU WILL DIE AT TWENTY (2019)
Directed by: Amjad Abu Alala
Written by: Amjad Abu Alala, Yousef Ibrahim
Cast: Mustafa Shehata, Moatasem Rashid, Islam Mubarak, Mahmoud Alsarraj,Bonna Khalid, Talal Afifi
Produced by: Arnaud Dommerc, Michael Henrichs, Ingrid Lill Høgtun
Co-produced by: Sherif Fathy, Mohamed Hefzy, Marie Fuglestein Lægried,Linda Bolstad Strønen
Cinematography: Sébastein Goepfert