As a tribute to Sudanese cinema, the Arab Digital Expression Foundation will screen both films.
Arab Digital Expression Foundation (ADEF) in Egypt will screen two short films by MAD Solutions including Al-Sit by Suzannah Mirghani and Buzz by Mohamed Fawi, as a tribute to Sudanese cinema.
This cinematic event is scheduled for Tuesday, September 5, and promises to be a celebration of Sudanese storytelling and creativity.
The ADEF, a multidimensional organisation, is dedicated to creating spaces that foster expression and learning, nurture skills, and cultivate knowledge within the Arab world.
Fawi’s Buzz, co-written with Ahmed Shaweesh and Noura Adil, features a cast including Jasour Abuelgasim, Zahra Mansour, and Ali Abdalgafar. The film is produced by Amjad Abu Alala, the director behind Sudan’s first-ever submission to the Academy Awards, You Will Die at Twenty – in collaboration with producer Mohamed Al-Omda, who co-produced Yemen’s first-ever selection for the Berlin International Film Festival The Burdened.
The film follows the story of a sick mother who watches her son and daughter prepare for her inevitable passing and their new reality as her health deteriorates.
Previously, Buzz made its world premiere at the 2022 Cairo International Film Festival, where it competed in the festival’s Official Competition.
On the other hand, Suzannah Mirghani’s Al-Sit, which premiered at the recent Ajyal Film Festival in Qatar, has garnered numerous accolades at prestigious film festivals in Beirut, Zanzibar, Ismailia, Toronto, Malmo, Busan, Spain, Korea, and France.
The film presents a sentimental story that revolves around Sudanese women; women who are in power and women who are vulnerable, shedding light on both ends of the social chain and the changes imposed by the modernised world on the society.
In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, 15-year-old Nafisa has a crush on Babiker, but her parents have arranged her marriage to Nadir, a young Sudanese businessman who lives abroad. Nafisa’s grandmother Al-Sit, the powerful village matriarch, has her own plans for Nafisa’s future. But can Nafisa choose for herself?
Al-Sit was written and directed by Suzannah Mirghani and co-produced by Eiman Mirghani. It features Mihad Murtada, Rabeha Mohammed, Mohammed Magdi, and Haram Basher. The film is distributed in the Arab world by MAD Solutions and has received support in the form of a development workshop and a production grant from Doha Film Institute, along with a design grant from VCUarts Qatar.
