“We’re controlled by teenage girls,” a man laughs in the Sudanese village where “Cotton Queen” is set, not referring to any of the young women in his own midst, but by those in Paris and London where the local cash crop is sent off to be used for clothing. In fact, no women are officially present for this meeting with Nadir (Hassan Kassala), but a few including Nafisa (Mihad Murtada) listen in as they prepare refreshments in a nearby kitchen, overhearing how Nadir plans to revolutionize the area with a weather-resistant seed that he’ll need the support of locals to advance, requiring their land for his plans, but promising them the world in return. It isn’t the first time that such a pitch has been made as Nafisa knows from the legend surrounding her grandmother Al-Sit (Rabha Mohamed Mahmoud), who was said to ward off the incursion of a British general decades earlier by massacring his men and still alive to tell the tale when anyone else who could dispute it has long since passed. But even if Nadir wasn’t living in the former general’s quarters, the only accommodations in the village that are suited towards a businessman such as himself, it seems as if history could be repeating itself when as well-meaning as Nadir appears in offering economic opportunity, having been born to someone that toiled in a village just like this one, the potential for exploitation seems considerably greater.
Writer/director Suzannah Mirghani shows that it is actually the young women of Sudan who will likely get the last laugh in her compelling feature debut, centered on Nafisa as she starts itching for independence yet finds herself inextricably tied to the community she was raised in when she wants something better for it. Another filmmaker might mistake her position picking cotton and likely a prospect for an arranged marriage as one of weakness, but Mirghani can see the strength in it when following Nafisa allows entree for the filmmaker to see how she touches every part of her village and how much power she has if she were to turn down the role she was assigned at birth. She is confounded by a community where she regularly works alongside other young women who aspire to nothing more than marrying a wealthy husband and brings tea to Al-Sit, who continues to dine out on the story of preventing the spread of colonialism – thought to be the reason the cotton has remained so healthy in these parts – yet has imposed in her own household a type of rule that’s no more forgiving.
Nafisa is already questioning the conventional wisdom around her when she starts thinking about a future with Babiker (Talaat Fareed), a kind but simple onion farmer who she believes she could actually find love with, and she’s pushed towards a potential marriage of convenience with Nadir, who is thought to stabilize not only her own family’s finances but those of the entire village. However, in helping to prepare Nadir’s house with her mother before he arrives, she comes to find that Al-Sit may have been promulgating a myth upon coming across an old newspaper article sitting in a dusty desk. Having the past upend the future is an issue that many have to contend with around the village as a decision needs to be made on Nadir’s synthetic cotton, but Mirghani sees it slightly a different way as Nafisa can be troubled by her grandmother’s lie but can’t deny the enduring boost it gave to the locals who resisted chasing trends for prosperity before Nadir came to town. The community is rife with such contradictions where work in the cotton fields can be enjoyed as a proud tradition by those performing it despite how difficult it is and women can be revered as pillars but still not allowed to travel on boats with men and sorting all of it out is where Nafisa has the space to grow when she’s pretty confident otherwise in her own beliefs.
A little of this perplexity is passed along to the audience when Mirghani can occasionally withhold a clarifying detail a little too long in the story, but with a magnetic lead turn from the poised Murtada, the director can’t possibly lose them, particularly as she finds quite a bit of depth in what’s ultimately a relatively straightforward narrative as Nafisa’s duties bring her into contact with different factions whose various attitudes can be seen forming a wall around her experience as impenetrable as any other. Outlining the obstacles to her freedom seems like a breakthrough in itself and as galvanizing as it can be to see Nafisa start to take control over her future, it is equally exciting to see Mirghani make such a strong announcement of her own.
“Cotton Queen” will screen again at the Critics Week sidebar of the Venice Film Festival on September 3rd at 2 pm at Sala Perla and September 4th at 7:30 pm at Sala Corinto.