Malika

Salma, a rebellious 8-year-old is sent to her room until dinnertime for cutting her bangs behind her mother’s back. Instead, she sneaks into bed with her dying Granny, who shares a secret about how she used to be a queen, how her crown was stolen by the beasts of darkness. In light of Granny’s illness, Salma decides to find the crown for her before it’s too late. Granny draws a map that would take her to where the crown is guarded by the beasts and Salma sneaks out of the house to begin her quest.
Starting from the backyard, Salma’s imagination takes her to the wildest places. She meets a fortune-teller who gives her a magic sword that would destroy the beasts. She gets into trouble with the gang of bandits who run rampant in town. She wades through a thick jungle and gets lost in the desert of stars. When she eventually finds the cave where the beasts dwell, she faces them shivering and alone in the dark. But as she opens her heart and turns to them in curiosity, she learns that not all that’s dark is to be feared. Salma takes the magnificent crown home only to be confronted with a revelation that changes everything: the crown was a gift from Granny and her hair and choices belongs to no one but herself.
This is a story about a grandmother-granddaughter relationship and what it means to be a wild girl in a world that asks us to be tame and obey. It’s set in a world of magical realism born out of a child’s imagination.