Huda's Salon

“When Huda is onscreen, played with sublime command by [Manal] Awad, the story becomes unremittingly about her…if Awad ever takes to the stage as Andromaque or Phèdre, I’ll be there.” –Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

“A riveting, topical spy thriller.” –Dan Mecca, The Film Stage

In this suspenseful drama inspired by real events, Reem, a young Palestinian mother, arrives at Huda’s salon in Bethlehem for some much-needed self-care, something that is an increasingly rare indulgence in her world. Huda, the salon owner, offers a listening ear and a soft place to land. Reem confides in Huda, sharing her struggles of mothering her baby and navigating life with a jealous and domineering husband. From there, both women's worlds spiral out of control.

“Huda is underground, trying to save herself and the girls by winning as much as time as possible,” writer and director Hany Abu-Assad notes, “but she is trapped in her own web. Her foil is Reem, who is above ground, trapped in her own apartment, and in the middle of moving sand.” Abu-Assad shot each scene in the film as a one-shot so that the audience is immersed in the lives of these two women.

Huda and Reem occupy very different physical, political, and emotional spaces, but are they so different? “Huda’s Salon is full of contradictions that work together in a precise way and begin to fit together like the main wheels inside a clock, eventually strengthening one another through their fight,” Abu-Assad says.

Director Hany Abu-Assad has been nominated twice for an Academy Award, and is the winner of a Golden Globe, Felix Award, Berlin Blue Angel Award, Independent Spirit Award, Amnesty International Film Prize, Golden Calf, and Cannes Film Festival Special Jury Prize. Huda’s Salon was an Official Selection of the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival.

Tickets to these screenings are $12.75 and under. Cinema members pay only $8.

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