its world premiere, You Will Die at Twenty by Sudanese director Amjad Abu Alala won two awards at the 76th Venice Film Festival (August 28-September 7), marking the first in its cabinet of achievements. The first award is Lion of the Future - "Luigi De Laurentiis" Venice Award for a Debut Film and the second is the Advantage Association's award at the Venice Days for being the most influential African film at the festival.
You Will Die at Twenty was praised by Variety magazine that described it as "boasting a terrific visual sensitivity". The film received a 100,000 USD worth grant from Filmauro.
Advantage association thanked director Amjad Abu Alala andthe cast; Mustafa Shehata, Islam Mubark, Mahmoud Elsaraj, Bunna Khalid and Talal Afifi. It also expressed its appreciation to the film's producers and the rest of the crew.
Inspired by Sudanese writer Hammour Ziada's short story Sleeping at the Foot of the Mountain, the film You Will Die at Twenty is set in Al Jazirah state, where Muzamil is born in a Sudanese village dominated by Sufi beliefs. When a prophecy by the holy man of the village predicts that he will die at the age of 20, Muzamil grows up surrounded by looks of sympathy that make him feel dead before his time, until Suliman, a cinematographer who has worked in the city, returns to the village. Suliman's old cinema projector opens a window onto a whole new world for Muzamil. His personality starts to change with Suliman's presence, and slowly he comes to doubt the truth of the prophecy.
You Will Die at Twenty is the seventh feature film in the history of Sudan and the feature debut of Sudanese director and screenwriter Amjad Abu Alala. Co-written by Abu Alala and Youssef Ibrahim, the film stars Mustafa Shehata, Islam Mubark, Mahmoud Elsaraj, Bunna Khalid and Talal Afifi. You Will Die at Twenty is a co-production between Film Clinic, Transit Films (Hossam Elouan), Andolfi, DUOFilm AS, Die Gesellschaft DGS, and Station Films Cinema Production co. Ltd.
Film Clinic was founded in 2005 by renowned Producer and Screenwriter Mohamed Hefzy as a production company that offers screenwriting workshops and specializes in producing feature and documentary films. While targeting all types of audiences in the Egyptian, Arab and international markets, Film Clinic is known for supporting young talented filmmakers, making innovative films as a creative alternative to commercial films in the Arab film industry.
Film Clinic co-produced Egyptian, Arab and international feature films that went on to win more than 150 awards at over 350 international film festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Dubai International Film Festival, Cairo international Film Festival, and the Carthage Film Festival. Moreover, three of its productions; Clash, Sheikh Jackson, Yomeddine, were Egypt's official submission to the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film. Film Clinic made many box-office hits, including Sameer, Shaheer & Baheer (2010), Banat El A'am (2012), Excuse My French (2014), and Hepta: The Last Lecture (2016). The company's latest co-productions are Gunshot (2018), Ras El Sana (2019), and the British-Egyptian film Luxor, which is currently in production.
