Based on Sudanese writer Hammour Ziada’s short story, You Will Die at Twenty follows the life of Muzamil (Shehata) from birth until his 20th birthday. Muzamil’s religious Sufi village lies between the Blue and White Nile in Al Jazira state, Sudan, and at the boy’s baptism ceremony, a sheik prophesises that Muzamil will meet an early death at the age of twenty.
Beholden to the grim fate, his mother, Sakina (Mubarak), becomes overprotective and forbids his education or travelling, and his despairing father, Alnoor (Afifi), leaves home for many years. The quality of Muzami’s life changes when he meets a Sudanese cinematographer, who imparts his passion for cinema and existential ideas with the curious teenager.