Opening 17. ALFILM Spotlight
Suzannah Mirghani “Cotton Queen ملكة القطن ”
Fiction, 2025, 94 mins.
Afterwards: Talk with Suzannah Mirghani / Moderation: Talal Afifi / English
- Film
Arabic /
With English subtitles /
120-180 mins.
In a cotton-growing village by the Nile, teenager Nafisa lives under the watchful authority of her grandmother Al-Sit, a matriarch whose anti-colonial past has hardened into social power. When a businessman arrives with genetically modified seeds and a marriage proposal, village economics and female destiny become inseparable. Mirghani frames this conflict with tactile care for land, labor, and ritual, showing how cotton functions as both livelihood and historical memory. As Nafisa negotiates desire, duty, and communal pressure, the film unfolds as a this coming-of-age narrative becomes charged with political stakes: who defines progress, who bears its cost, and who gets to imagine the future? “Cotton Queen” is at once tender and unsparing in its portrayal of women confronting inherited hierarchies while naming their own agency.
Dates
Past
Credits
The 17th edition of ALFILM is funded by: Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung with financial support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Council of the Arab Ambassadors in association with the Mission of the Arab League, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient. In cooperation with HAU Hebbel am Ufer.
Location
HAU1
Stresemannstr. 29, 10963 BerlinThere are two marked parking spots in front of the building. Access to the Parkett by means of a separate entrance with lift when necessary. Barrier-free restroom facilities are available.
