Director: Hany Abu-Assad.
Writer: Hany Abu-Assad.
Stars: Maisa Abd Elhadi, Ali Suliman, Manal Awad, Samer Bisharat.
Synopsis: Reem, a young mother married to a jealous man, goes to Huda’s salon in Bethlehem. This ordinary visit turns sour when Huda, after having put Reem in a shameful situation, extorts her to have her work for the secret service of the occupiers, and thus betray her people.
“It’s easier to occupy a society that is already repressing itself.” This phrase, while applicable to several nations around the world, has a special reverberation in the vision of Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad and his latest film, Huda’s Salon. While the endless injustices that Palestinians continue to face are known yet continuously ignored, this movie merges this fact with the role of women as mothers, wives, and human beings within this society. In this regard, the story dares to ask: would things be different if we didn’t live in such a misogynist culture? Could we help each other more if we treated women better and improved the foundations of our family bonds?
Huda’s Salon, based on true events, starts with a mundane activity: Reem (Maisa Abd Elhadi) goes to a salon to get a haircut in the city of Bethlehem, in the West Bank. Huda (Manal Awad), the establishment’s owner, is friendly and understanding of Reem’s situation. She just got married and she is already tired of her jealous husband. Nonetheless, this mundane activity soon becomes a nightmare when Huda drugs her, strips her and takes compromising pictures of the young unconscious mother with an anonymous man. As it turns out, Huda works as an agent and recruiter in favor of the occupiers, and now she wants Reem to be an informant. The pictures are her protection guarantee.
Hany Abu-Assad’s most celebrated films – Paradise Now (2005) and Omar (2013) – are about the Israeli occupation and the way Palestinians face this reality. While Huda’s Salon is undoubtedly about the same issue, it also focuses on the way women are marked by both the occupation and the rules and norms of their Palestinian society. It becomes undeniable that the patriarchy makes them vulnerable and lonely, easy prey for attentive eyes and in need of desperate solutions. Huda, a divorced woman who hasn’t seen her children in years, knows this, taking advantage of the same system that made her a pariah. She has experienced the feeble position of women, and this becomes her weapon.
The film has mere minutes of superficial friendliness to transform into a stressful story of survival, guilt, and fear. Just as Reem deals with her trauma and the uncertainty of her future with this unwanted tag, Huda is caught and kidnapped by the Palestinian resistance. While Huda is incessantly questioned by Hasan (Ali Suliman) to give up the name of the women in her pictures, Reem starts to spiral out of control, alone and uncertain of what to do. Her husband quickly becomes another threat when he proves to be untrustworthy.
Half espionage action film and half confessional drama, Huda’s Salon excels at presenting complex and difficult to judge characters. Huda is brave, pragmatic, and aware of her sins. She is the product of her own decisions and the unfair punishments set by a drastically intolerant society. Soon, it is easy to understand her circumstances, while distinguishing her faults. It is hard to condemn her when she is also a victim of the system. Hasan, a leader of the Resistance, offers another point of view. He represents the traditional assumptions of the Palestinian society, but he slowly opens his mind to a different perspective through Huda’s argumentations. The conversations between them offer muddy arguments and unfulfilling conclusions that mirror reality. Reem is an unfortunate victim whose only fault is to be too trusting, too transparent.
Alternating the story of Huda inside a cave while she is questioned and the story of Reem as she walks restlessly through the streets of Bethlehem looking for a way out, Huda’s Salon contains both a celebration and a condemnation of Palestine. There is a certain honor with which the Resistance conducts itself, enlivened by the heroic and attentive Hasan. However, Reem’s psychological turmoil is enough of a commentary to provoke reflections about her vulnerability and emotional loneliness.
This story could have taken place in any patriarchal society. Nevertheless, the fact that it is set in the Occupied Territories offers an additional layer of horror and frustration. Even though the ending is hurried and unconvincing, the previous 90 minutes evoke realistic stress that prove that Huda’s Salon offers important commentaries on both the patriarchy and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory.
Grade: B
