Virtual Voice (الصّوت الافتراضيّ)
Qumra Projects
Suzannah Mirghani / Short Documentary / Sudan, Qatar / 2021 / Colour
In English / Arabic subtitles
Genres: Documentary, Satire, Experimental
MENA Premiere
Rated: Parental guidance is advised. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.
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Synopsis
In this satirical review of our times, Suzi doll is an ego-warrior. An online avatar marching to the algorithms of social media. She is lit by temporary outrage. A trending indignation. A passion that is fashion. A politics of the popular. She copies and pastes and forwards blame. Sometimes uplifting, sometimes bandwagon bullying. Her activism is abstract. Her help is hypothetical. We know many girls like Suzi, and many times we are her—vacuous virtual voices, echoing injustices.
About the Director
Suzannah Mirghani is a Sudanese-Russian writer, researcher, and media studies/museum studies graduate. Her short film ‘Al-Sit’ (2020), screening on Netflix Middle East, won the Canal+ Award at the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival in 2021, among other prizes. Suzannah's recent short films include ‘Virtual Voice’ (2021, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival) and the short documentary ‘Kamala Ibrahim Ishag: States of Oneness’ (2022), commissioned by the Serpentine Galleries. Her poem Some Behavioural Characteristics of the Sudanese Honey Bee (Apis mellifera sudanensis) was published in the Black SWANA issue of Mizna (Vol. 23, No. 2, 2023). At the development stage, her first feature, ‘Cotton Queen’ (2025), won the ArteKino Award at L’Atelier de la Cinéfondation at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022.
Credits
- Director
- Suzannah Mirghani
- Screenwriter
- Suzannah Mirghani
- Producer
- Suzannah Mirghani
- Editor
- Suzannah Mirghani, Socheat Cheng
- Cinematographer
- Suzannah Mirghani, Rodney Sharkey
- Sound
- Severin Favriau, Guillaume Moutardier
- Cast
- Suzannah Mirghani