Suzannah Mirghani is the writer, director, and producer of 'Al-Sit', which won 26 international awards, including four Academy Award qualifying prizes.
Sudanese short film Al-Sit, directed by Suzannah Mirghani, won the Best Narrative Short at the 32nd New Orleans Film Festival.
The movie has received 26 international awards to top the 2021 list of best short Arab films. Previously, receiving three awards from Oscar-qualifying festivals, Al-Sit is now one of the most notable nominees for the Academy Awards.
The film presents a sentimental story that revolves around Sudanese women; women who are in power and women who are vulnerable, shedding the light on both ends of the social chain and the changes imposed by the modernised world on 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 is written and directed by Suzannah Mirghani, who co-produced it along with Eiman Mirghani, and stars Mihad Murtada, Rabeha Mohammed, Mohammed Magdi and Haram Basher. The film is distributed in the Arab world by MAD Solutions and has previously received a development workshop and a production grant from Doha Film Institute, as well as a design grant from VCUarts Qatar.
Recently, the film was screened at Carthage Film Festival (JCC), and Sharjah International Film Festival for Children & Youth (SIFF). Furthermore, it nabbed the Canal+/Cine+ Award, which was presented by the French channel Canal Plus Cinema within the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, where the film landed its international premiere, and it had its world premiere at the latest edition of the Ajyal Film Festival in Qatar.
