You Will Die At Twenty

By Benjamin Lutz

The short:

This coming-of-age drama is only the eighth film to be made inside Sudan and the country's first-ever submission to the Academy Awards.

The long:

You Will Die At Twenty follows Muzamil, a young man whose death at the age of 20 is prophesied not long after his birth. The early prophecy casts a shadow on Muzamil's formative years, evoking the burdens felt by a generation on Sudan's youth growing up under the corrupt, autocratic regime of Omar al-Bashir. As he turns 19, Muzamil takes it upon himself to decide what it means to be alive, even as death beckons. The film premiered last year at the Venice International Film Festival but opened for a wider audience on Netflix in the Middle East and North Africa this month.

To watch or not to watch?

Watch watch watch! A moving meditation on what it means to live in the present, You Will Die At Twenty is an auspicious debut and Sudan's first Oscar submission.