In a Sudanese village, a mother gives birth to Muzamel, a boy cursed by a Dervish prophecy that he will die at the age of 20. Muzamel grows up surrounded by looks of sympathy that make him feel dead before his time, until Suliman, a cinematographer who has worked in the city, returns to the village. Suliman’s old cinema projector opens a window onto a whole new world for Muzamel. His personality starts to change with Suliman’s presence, and slowly he comes to doubt the truth of the prophecy. His mother desperately attempts to prevent the prophecy from coming to pass. After many defeats, including losing his father, Muzamel begins to dig his own grave. When the day of his 20th birthday arrives, he is torn by doubt and left with the choice between death and a bus to the world he is eager to know about.