‘Huda’s Salon’ Review: Gripping Feminist Thriller Where Women Only Have Harrowing Options in the Occupied Palestine
variety.comTomris Laffly Hair salons are sacred spaces. Where else could one catch up on the latest neighborhood gossip and engage in mindless chit-chat, while getting treated to a wash, trim and blow-out?
But in “Paradise Now“ director Hany Abu-Assad’s restrained yet gripping “Huda’s Salon,” a feminist political thriller whose philosophical observations are richer than its white-knuckle moments, the titular Bethlehem joint secretly operates as something other than a pampering safe haven.
Reem (Maisa Abd Elhadi) doesn’t know this as she takes a seat at Huda’s (Manal Awad) modest place on an especially quiet day, before her innocent little excursion costs her a great deal of irreversible trouble.It all starts cordially enough between the two Palestinian women, a pair of friends and allies who’ve put up with their own share of patriarchal nonsense, both inside their families and on a macro level, within the oppressed Palestine long occupied by Israeli forces.
Labored title cards give us a redundant glimpse into why the occupation has been especially tough for women. And yet in the film’s impressive long-take opening, Huda’s grievances sound like the commonplace kind you could hear anywhere. “These days, everyone thinks they can be a hairdresser themselves because of YouTube videos,” she complains about her salon’s shrinking business.
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