EXCLUSIVE: Totem Films is joining with Studiocanal to handle international sales on Suzannah Mirghani’s Cotton Queen ahead of its world premiere in Venice Critics’ Week next week.

Mirghani’s debut feature will launch on the Lido on Wednesday, September 3. Mad Solutions and Film Clinic previously acquired MENA distribution rights on the title.

Set in a cotton farming village in Sudan, Cotton Queen follows teenage Nafisa, raised on her grandmother’s heroic tales of battling British colonisers. When a young businessman arrives from abroad with a new development plan, Nafisa becomes the centre of a power play to determine the future of the village.

The film is produced by Caroline Daube for Germany’s Strange Bird with Didar Domehri for France’s Maneki Films. Co-producers are Annemarie

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