CinemaNA: Cotton Queen - Suzannah Mirghani

A screening of Cotton Queen, by Sudanese filmmaker Suzannah Mirghani.

In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, teenage Nafisa is raised on heroic tales of battling British colonisers told by her grandmother, the village matriarch Al-Sit. But when a young businessman arrives from abroad with a new development plan and genetically engineered cotton, Nafisa becomes the center of a power play to determine the future of the village. Awakening to her own strength, Nafisa sets out to save the cotton fields – and herself. Neither she nor her community will ever be the same again.

Suzannah Mirghani

Suzannah Mirghani is a writer, researcher, and passionate independent filmmaker with a special interest in highlighting stories from the Arab world. She is a media and museum studies graduate, and the author and editor of several academic books and articles. Being of multicultural Sudanese and Russian backgrounds, Suzannah is interested in stories that examine the complexity of identity. She holds under her belt a number of short films that she wrote, directed, and produced, including HIND’S DREAM (2014), CARAVAN (2016), and AL-SIT (2020), which won the Canal+ Award at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (2021).

She has also won six awards at festivals that qualify for the Academy Awards’ Best Narrative Short at the New Orleans Film Festival (2021), Best of Fest at LA Shorts (2021), the Grand Prix at Tampere Film Festival (2021), Best Short Film at BronzeLens (2021), Best Live Action Short at AFI Fest (2021), and Best Live Action Short at the Interfilm Berlin (2021). Her latest short is the experimental VIRTUAL VOICE (2021), which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Cast

Mihad Murtada (Nafisa)

Rabha Mohamed Mahmoud(Al-Sit)

Talaat Fareed(Babiker)

Haram Bisheer (Aisha)

Mohamed Musa(Bilal)

Hassan Kassala(Nadir)

Fatma Farid (Faiza )

Aya Yassin Altageel (Khadija )

Tagali Magdy (Farida )

Tibr Magdy Al ( Toma)

Crew

Scriptwriter: Suzannah Mirghani

DOP: Frida Marzouk

Editors: Amparo Mejías, Simon Blasi, Frank Müller

Music: Amine Bouhafa

Set Designer: Marwa Amer

Art Direction: Pierre Glemet