Sudanese-Russian filmmaker Suzannah Mirghani is set to unveil her feature-length debut Cotton Queen in competition at the upcoming International Film Critics’ Week, running alongside the 81st Venice Film Festival from 27 August to 6 September.

The film, an international co-production between Germany, France, Palestine, and Egypt, tells the story of Nafisa, a teenage girl growing up in a cotton-farming village in Sudan. Raised on her grandmother’s stirring tales of resistance against British colonisers, Nafisa’s world is upended when a young entrepreneur from abroad arrives with a vision for development and genetically engineered cotton. As tensions mount between tradition and progress, Nafisa becomes the unexpected centre of a power struggle that will determine the village’s fate. In her quest to preserve the land and define her own future, Nafisa embarks on a journey of self-empowerment and transformation.

Cotton Queen is penned and directed by Mirghani and boasts a cast led by Mihad Murtada, Rabha Mohamed Mahmoud, Talaat Fareed, Haram Bisheer, Mohamed Musa and Hassan Mohi El Din. Behind the camera, Frida Marzouk handles cinematography, with editing by Amparo Mejías, Simon Blasi and Frank Müller. Amine Bouhafa is in charge of the score, whilst Emmanuel Zouki and Laure Arto oversee sound design. The production design is courtesy of Pierre Glemet, and costume design is credited to Simba El Mur.

Mirghani, who is also a researcher and editor at Georgetown University in Qatar, gained international recognition with her 2020 short Al-Sit, which scooped the Canal+ Award at Clermont-Ferrand and is currently streaming on Netflix Middle East. Her recent work includes the experimental Virtual Voice (2021) and the Serpentine Galleries-commissioned Kamala Ibrahim Ishag: States of Oneness (2022).

Cotton Queen snagged the ArteKino International Award during its development phase at the Cinéfondation’s L’Atelier in Cannes 2022. More recently, it was also one of the projects showcased at the Doha Film Institute industry gathering Qumra.

Cotton Queen is produced by Caroline Daube for Strange Bird (Germany), Didar Domehri for Maneki Films (France), Annemarie Jacir and Ossama Bawardi for Philistine Films (Palestine), Jessica Khoury and Mohamed Hefzy for Film Clinic (Egypt), and Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab for MAD Solutions (Egypt).