Feature film
Tajouje
تاجوج
Gadalla Gubara · 1977
Synopsis
A century ago, in an isolated village in eastern Sudan, a young man of the tribe, al-Muhallaq, loves his beautiful cousin Tajouje and proclaims it in a song. The customs of the tribe condemn such a declaration, and his uncle refuses to give him his daughter. The young man goes away and makes amends; the marriage is finally permitted, but another suitor, Ohag, has in the meantime set his eyes on Tajouje, and jealousy takes hold.
Context
The first feature-length fiction film by its director, who regarded it as his best, it adapts Osman Mohamed Hashim's novel published in 1948, regarded as the first Sudanese novel, and gives the role of the lover to Salah ibn Albadya, a popular-music singer. Shot on 35 mm, it was shown at the Rotterdam festival in 2010; digitised in 2015 by a German-Sudanese project, it was later presented in restored form at the Goethe-Institut in Khartoum.
Who it is for
A film in Sudanese Arabic of about an hour and a half, in which songs have a large place; a restored copy has been screened since its digitisation.
Prizes and reception
It received the Nefertiti statue at the Cairo International Film Festival in 1982, and prizes at other festivals, from Alexandria to Ouagadougou and Carthage.