You Will Die At Twenty

DVD Features

BONUS SHORT FILMS

More Than Two Days
Directed by Ahmed Abdelnaser
Produced by Amjad Abu Alala
Qatar
Arabic with English subtitles
10 minutes

After an unspeakable incident, two teenage brothers endure a painful period of silence, shame and regret.

Studio
Directed by Amjad Abu Alala
Sudan
Arabic with English subtitles
8 minutes

Made in a workshop supervised by Abbas Kiarostami, this humorous, touching and inventive short film follows a diverse array of people getting their portraits taken in a photography studio.

Discs: 1

• Highest Rating
  "Critic's Pick! In his debut feature, Amjad Abu Alala deepens a fable-like premise into a lyrical confrontation with the certitudes of faith and the life-giving powers of doubt. [T]he movie’s ravishing compositions imbue the setting with the shimmer of myth. Dust-flecked beams of sunlight slice through shadows; green-robed dervishes glide down the Nile in boats; the turrets of a mosque pierce a startling blue sky. Avoiding didactic conclusions or pat answers, Alala’s film questions blind belief but finds boundless enchantment in every frame."
  Devika Girish, The New York Times
• Highest Rating
  "A complex, stunning and sophisticated debut feature from Amjad Abu Alala and a major achievement for Sudanese cinema."
  Mina Takia, AwardsWatch
• Highest Rating
  "Amjad Abu Alala and DOP Sébastien Goepfert have created one of the most visually striking movies of this year."
  Pramit Chatterjee, Mashable India
• Highest Rating
  "Critic's Pick! The visual assurance of “You Will Die at Twenty” is the most immediately notable element of Sudanese director Amjad Abu Alala’s accomplished feature debut. Beautifully composed and boasting the kind of sensitivity to light sources and color tonalities usually ascribed to top photographers, the film lovingly depicts the remote east-central region of Sudan as a quasi-magical place of sand, sky and the colors of the Nile. "
  Jay Weissberg, Variety
• Highest Rating
  "[Alala] sharpens this fable-like coming-of-death tale into a moving commentary on unwavering compliance; a clear portrait of Sudan during its 30 years of authoritarian leadership. Thoughtfully ominous, the feature makes both an emotional and visual imprint...."
  Sarah Ward, Screen Daily
• Highest Rating
  "[A] beautifully realised feature debut."
  Fabien Lemercier, Cineuropa
• Highest Rating
  "[V]isually arresting...."
  Amber Wilkinson, Eye For Film
• Highest Rating
  "A vibrant and transfixing revelation, “You Will Die at 20” is as novel a vision as we may see this year."
  Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times
• Highest Rating
  "...lyrical, visually handsome...You Will Die has a beauty and confidence that suggests a major career ahead for Amjad Abu Alala...."
  Dennis Harvey, 48hills
• Highest Rating
  "Abu Alala has given audiences a deep window into a culture all too often ignored in mainstream cinema. "
  Benjamin Tran, Film-Forward
• Highest Rating
  "Ritualistic, affecting and convincingly acted, first-time director Amjad Abu Alala crafts a unique and heartbreaking coming-of-age, a sorrowful and yet graceful look at the mysteries of death and how we inevitably live with its presence. Winner of the Best Debut Award at Venice, it is also a mystical and profoundly executed look at community bond and resilience."
  Roger Costa, Brazilian Press
• Highest Rating
  "Abu Alala’s ardent attention to daily details, rooted in political and cultural history, offers a powerful symbolic vision of the tormented and violent legacy of dogmatism and dictatorship."
  Richard Brody, The New Yorker
• Highest Rating
  "...its stark, stab-you-while-sleep beauty resembles a spaghetti western."
  Hunter Lanier, Film Threat