Los Angeles, May 16 -- Iman Vellani, who rose to prominence with Marvel's "Ms. Marvel", has been cast in the lead role of "Suffering Is Optional', an ambitious climate thriller directed by Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker Zarrar Kahn.
Vellani will play Noor Rahman, a 20-year-old drama student who is cast in the lead role of an India-set adaptation of "Hamlet." Pushed by an exacting director to pour her grief into the performance, she is simultaneously visited by the ghost of her deceased partner, who carries an impending climate prophecy.
Torn between artistic ambition and institutional abuse, she must find a way to contend with both. The film explores themes of power and coming of age in a corrupt society, with campus culture wars and climat...