Germany, France, Palestine, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan | 2026 | Fiction | 94 min | Arabic w/ subtitles
In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, Nafisa, a teenage cotton picker, is the granddaughter of the elderly village matriarch Al-Sit, who has long told her stories about how she heroically battling British colonizers and, when Sudan gained its independence in 1956, took over the plantation. A young businessman, heir to the cotton empire that formerly controlled the village’s cotton production under the British, arrives from abroad with an ambitious plan: he will bring the plantation into the 21st century by introducing genetically engineered cotton seeds. The cotton won’t produce plantable seeds at harvest, so the company will be able to continue to sell its product. But that arrangement will destroy small farming. Nafisa, just awakening to her own strength, becomes the center of a power struggle over the village’s future. She sets out to save the cotton fields—and herself.
Mirghani is the first Sudanese woman to direct a feature-length film. In 2023 she and the crew were ready to begin shooting in Sudan, but then war broke out , so the production shifted all shooting and locations to Egypt.
“"I hope my film helps to advance the rights of young girls to speak up for themselves in similar situations," Mirghani has said, "and I hope it gives the necessary space for those in positions of power to empathize with young girls who have been marginalized, despite the family’s attempts at protecting them.”
