Bank Heist Drama Leads Winter Screenings Across Middle East

Lebanese director Rami Kodeih's debut feature Furies heads a group of Middle Eastern films arriving in theaters this winter, a slate built largely on genre stories rather than the festival fare of recent years. The film takes its premise from robberies carried out in 2019 by Lebanese citizens trying to withdraw savings frozen during the country's economic crisis.

In Furies, Rym Mroue plays Maro, a hairdresser and single mother, and Maria Nakouzi plays her sister Dalia, who works at a water-truck company. When Dalia is diagnosed with uterine cancer, Maro goes to a bank to withdraw money. A manager tells her the institution is not legally required to serve her under those circumstances. Maro then assembles a crew: Issam Bou Khaled as Sunshine, an elderly former Phalangist fighter, and Hasan Akil as Hamza, a co-worker of Dalia's who owes money to a local mobster.

Kodeih, who was born in Beirut and is based in Los Angeles, shot Beirut as a city of unkept buildings, loud pop music, and street arguments. The film runs 35 years past the end of the Lebanese civil war and stages a skirmish between Christian and Sunni characters. Critics have flagged weak writing in the sisters' relationship and an awkwardly staged car chase in the final act.

Ali Asghari's A Bit of Light takes a different route. Set in Tehran in February 2026, days before strikes by the United States and Israel, the film follows Arash, a physician played by Misagh Zareh, who plans to end his life after police treatment of protesters during demonstrations in 2025 and 2026. The story runs across 24 hours. A doorman offers to tape Arash's office windows against incoming attacks and says "Trump won't lie!" Asghari directed Divine Comedy, released last year.

Mohsen Gharaie's Falling House casts Farhad Aslani as Rachid, a prison guard suspended over bribery accusations. His family must leave a home slated for demolition under a municipal redevelopment plan. His daughter Ensi, played by Laleh Marzban, plans to move to Turkey for modeling work. Rachid locks his wife and two daughters inside the house.

Halkawt Mustafa's No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman follows Vyan, a Kurdish-Norwegian woman played by Avan Jamal, who travels to Iraq in 2014. Islamic State takes Mosul, kills her parents, and sells her and her sister into slavery. Vyan kills her captor, joins a Peshmerga unit, and is credited with more than 100 kills against Islamic State fighters. She later returns to Mosul after learning her sister is alive and married to an Islamic State commander. Mustafa's fifth feature.

Ashgan El Hamus's Elbaraneya is a family drama set in the Egyptian countryside, performed by mostly non-professional actors in a cinema verite style. Details of the plot were not available in the material reviewed.

The source article argues that Middle Eastern audiences want portrayals of daily life that censorship allows, while international viewers arrive already familiar with stories about poverty, war, illegal migration, and gender relations. It says autumn and winter releases attempt to combine genre structures with political subject matter.

Furies is scheduled to open the winter season. A Bit of Light, Falling House, No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman, and Elbaraneya follow in the same window.