Cotton Queen at the Minimalen Short Film Festival
Kosmorama and the Minimalen Short Film Festival are joining forces during the 38th edition of Minimalen for two screenings of the feature film Cotton Queen by Suzannah Mirghani . The screenings will take place on Wednesday, January 14 at Cinemateket and Sunday, January 18 in Nova 4.
Screening number 1 Wednesday 14. January 21:00 - Cinemateket i Trondheim
Screening number 2 Sunday 18. January 20:00 - Nova 4
Suzannah Mirghani (b. 1978, Sudan) is one of the most distinctive new voices in contemporary cinema, known for her visually striking and deeply personal stories about identity, culture, and the cross-pressures of globalization. Based in Qatar, Mirghani gained particular recognition with her short film Al-Sit (2020), which received international acclaim for its poetic expression and incisive exploration of generational and political tensions. Her work combines social observation with a subtle, almost mythic sensibility that gives her characters a rich and complex inner life.
Her debut feature film, Cotton Queen (2025), premiered at the Venice Film Festival and builds on the thematic concerns of Al-Sit, expanding them onto a broader historical canvas. The film explores social control, personal freedom, and female self-determination within a setting shaped by tradition and economic power structures. With its refined visual language and its ability to portray both intimacy and systemic conflict, Cotton Queen positions Mirghani as one of the leading auteurs from the Global South, and her films continue to open space for new perspectives in world cinema.
In addition to the film screenings, you can meet Suzannah Mirghani in a masterclass on Thursday, in collaboration with the Short Film Convention.
The screening of Cotton Queen is a collaboration between Kosmorama Trondheim International Film Festival and the Minimalen Short Film Festival.
About the film:
In a cotton-growing village in Sudan, teenager Nafisa stands at the crossroads between tradition and change. When a businessman arrives with genetically modified cotton—and a marriage proposal—she becomes the center of a struggle over the village’s future. As her grandmother, Al-Sit, clings to old hierarchies, Nafisa begins to discover her own strength. A tender and politically charged coming-of-age story about women’s resilience, self-determination, and the struggle to shape one’s own destiny.
