In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, teenage Nafisa is raised on heroic tales of battling British colonizers 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.
Cotton Queen
Contemporary Arab Cinema is co-presented with the Brooklyn Academy of Music and:
This series is made possible through the support of:
Cotton Queen
Virtual Q&A with director Suzzanah Mirghani
Tickets: $15 (members), $20 (nonmembers)
"Suzannah Mirghani’s modest debut feature confidently blends coming of age drama and history lesson as a young woman finds herself caught between traditional expectations and new possibilities."
SPECIAL EVENTS
Virtual Q&A with filmmaker Suzzanah Mirghani moderated by series curator Lina Matta
Sunday, Jul. 26 2026, 1:00
- Sudanese-Russian filmmaker Suzannah Mirghani is an Editor/Assistant Director for Publications at the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), Georgetown University in Qatar. She is the first Sudanese woman to write and direct a full-length narrative feature film. Her short film Al-Sit (2020) — the proof-of-concept for Cotton Queen — is on Netflix Middle East and won the Canal+ Award at Clermont-Ferrand. Her short Kamala Ibrahim Ishag: States of Oneness (2022) was commissioned by Serpentine Galleries. Cotton Queen premiered at Venice and won the top prize at Thessaloniki.
- Lina Matta is the series curator for Contemporary Arab Cinema, the Director of Shahid AVOD, MBC 4 and the two movie channels, MBC 2 and MBC MAX at MBC Group in Dubai. A film fanatic, Lina watches movies at work and for fun. In her spare time she attends film festivals. If you’re looking for Lina, you may find her eating a frozen dog in Park City, UT, grabbing a felafel sandwich in Toronto or chasing a food truck in Austin, TX. Lina holds an M.A. in Film from Boston University. She’s been a news producer, a TV director, a field audio engineer, an original web content producer and she once worked closely with a Libyan revolutionary!
Tickets: $15 (members), $20 (nonmembers)
This film is part of the following initiatives:
This film is part of the Contemporary Arab Cinema series.
Contemporary Arab Cinema is co-presented with the Brooklyn Academy of Music and:
This series is made possible through the support of:
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