EXCLUSIVE: The award-winning filmmakers behind upcoming Sudanese feature Blue Card have formally withdrawn from the Berlinale Co-Production Market after being refused visas by the German embassy in Cairo, which claimed they were a “migration risk”.
Director Mohammed Alomda, producer Amjad Abu Alala and writer Paula Thabet were due to travel from Egypt this week to attend the co-pro platform, which takes place as part of the European Film Market (EFM) from February 14-17.
However, on February 12, the team were informed their visa applications had been rejected, citing uncertainty over why they were travelling to Germany and whether they intended to return.
An option to take part remotely was offered by the market, which the team originally accepted but later declined before their full withdrawal.
“Why should we take part remotely when we have been made to feel unwanted by this country,” said Alala, the Cairo-based Sudanese director of Venice award-winner You Will Die At Twenty and producer of Cannes award-winner Goodbye Julia. He has also previously served as a jury member for the Berlinale’s Generation section.
“With our strong reputation in the film industry – with hits at international festivals – we had to take action to save our dignity as Arab and African filmmakers. It’s like they cannot accept the idea of us being decent enough to travel legally and trusting that we will be back to shoot our film in Cairo this April.”
Alala said he placed no blame at the door of the Berlinale, which he described as “a platform that consistently supports films about displacement, exile and the human search for belonging”.
Berlinale response
In a statement, Martina Bleis, the head and project curator of the Berlinale Co-Production Market, said: “We were looking very much forward to having the project’s producer, director and writer with us in Berlin, for them to share their vision here with potential partners in person, and we are sad not to have them with us now. The stories that our participants bring onto the screen connect people beyond borders, and we wish the same for our market.”
As the sole Arab project in the 35-strong selection, the filmmaking team would have met with a range of potential partners to discuss the project.
Blue Card has already assembled a solid framework of backers and is a Sudan-Egypt-Germany-Saudi co-production. As a Sudan-Germany co-production, it is also supported by the Berlinale World Cinema Fund.
The story follows Abdullah, flees alone to Egypt after the outbreak of war in Sudan and begins plans to smuggle his family out. To earn the necessary money, he takes a demeaning job at a nursing home, where unexpected relationships begin to influence his decisions and reshape his future.
It marks the feature directorial debut of Almoda, a key figure in Sudan’s new wave cinema, who co-founded Station Films. As well as producing Goodbye Julia, which was the first Sudanese film ever selected for Cannes, he produced Yemeni film The Burdened, which premiered at the Berlinale in 2023 and won the Amnesty International Film Prize.
“The implications of this [visa] refusal are deeply concerning,” added Alala. “When professional records, prior compliance, and institutional support are not enough to overcome a presumption of ‘migration risk,’ it raises serious questions.
“It suggests that artists connected to regions affected by war or displacement may be viewed through a form of labelling that reduces them to perceived migration profiles rather than recognising their professional legitimacy. Such an approach risks reinforcing harmful stereotypes and unequal treatment toward those artists and those associated with them.”
Blue Card is in pre-production with filming due to take place from April to May ahead of delivery by November. It is produced by Alomda and Alala for Station Films and co-produced by Germany’s Mayana Films, France’s Player Films, Norway’s Barentsfilm, and Saudi partners through Red Sea Lodge and MBC Studios.
The German embassy in Cairo had not responded to Screen’s request for comment at time of publication.
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