Cotton Queen

Bluesky

Questions of who controls the past and future lie at the heart of Sudanese-Russian filmmaker Suzannah Mirghani’s feature debut which offers a beguiling mix of magic-realist fable, coming-of-age drama and post-colonial critique. Premiered in Venice, it won the top prize in Thessaloniki, joining a recent wave of Sudanese fiction films, including Goodbye Julia and You Will Die At Twenty, which have attracted international interest.

In the cotton fields of rural Sudan, teenager Nafisa (Mihad Murtada) and her friends have a romantic view of the lives that stretch before them as they sing together and cool off in the Nile. Cinematographer Frida Marzouk, whose lensing is impeccable throughout, captures their positive energy which seems to almost reflect the sunlight. Nafisa has taken a shine to local lad Babiker (Talaat Farhid) but her grandmother Al-Sit (Rabha Mohamed Mahmoud) – who is also the village elder – has other ideas, telling her, “Only bad girls go to the river”.

Nafisa’s mother, meanwhile, has set her sights on snaring Nadir (Hassan Kasala) a British businessman who has come to town in a bid to sell the locals on his genetically modified cotton seed which, notably, is stunted by comparison to that in the local fields and doesn’t self-propagate. Generally speaking, Mirghani doesn’t mess about with her metaphors, taking a direct approach that has a robust appeal, such as later when Nadir carelessly destroys a bird’s nest as he shakes a tree for fruit.

Nadir has taken up residence in the house once owned by his grandfather, which has an almost Sleeping Beauty-like frozen-in-time quality thanks to local tales of it being haunted. It is also closely associated with the legend of resisting the British which has grown up around Al-Sit. As Nafisa finds herself pushed this way and that, Mirghani shows the tussle between traditions and the rapid pace of change in the modern world. She’s also careful to avoid any suggestion that Nafisa and her family are adrift from non-Sudanese society or information – mobile phones feature, reminding us of close connections that have sprung up in the past half century.

While the colonial legacy is evident, the writer/director – who has expanded her feature from short Al-Sit – also isn’t scared to highlight the problematic nature of some Sudanese cultural traditions, particularly female genital mutilation (FGM) – outlawed by the country in 2020 but shown to scar women in the region in multiple ways. Mirghani packs a lot into Cotton Queen but by ensuring the story remains straightforward, despite its magic realist flourishes, she is able to elegantly articulate the tensions in Sudanese communities and families while also celebrating their strengths and resilience.

Source