Cotton Queen

In her captivating debut feature, Sudanese-Russian filmmaker Suzannah Mirghani expands on her acclaimed short Al-Sit with a richly layered feminist tale, set in a cotton-farming village. Teenage Nafisa, raised on her grandmother’s stories of resistance, finds herself at the centre of a power play when a businessman introduces genetically modified cotton. With touches of magical realism, Cotton Queen captures a young woman’s awakening amid a community caught between tradition and modernity.