Huda's Salon (2021) User Reviews

Ignore the misogynists who downrate this wonderful movie

[wickedmikehampton · 7/10 · 7 May 2022]

Hany Abu-Assad made one of the my favourite movies. 'Omar'. I loved 'Paradise Now' too. With Huda's Salon', I now rank him with my best directors.

As with all his films, this is an occupation drama, the difficulty of being Palestinian. But, as he's done before, he doesn't attack Israel but instead shows damage through the experience of ordinary folk on the ground.

A young mother is blackmailed in order to force her to become a traitor. Her impossible situation, and the hunt by Palestinian rebels for both her and her blackmailer adds a thriller element. However, it's greatest strength may be founded in a sublime conversation in an interrogation room. Simplicity is what makes 'Huda's Salon' most profound, and must be accompanied by, "What would I do to save my life?"

Actresses Manal Awad and Maisa Abd Elhadi step wonderfully away from their previous support roles into their leads here. The triad is completed by veteran Aliman Suliman (from '200 Meters' and 'The Attack').

As an important side-note, I'm disappointed that hate has entered the review section. Some people don't review but instead express their bias, giving movies low ratings. Here, it appears to be religious misogyny but can be seen elsewhere as anti-Russia, anti-Israel, anti-anything... It must be addressed lest the review section be made as obsolete as the comments sections on most major websites. This is a movie website. Movie lovers, directors and actors must be more important than politics. Moderation is important.

harsh society under the occupation

[uhuru-154 · 7/10 · 18 March 2022]

The movie is about women being in continuous fear.. that's it the society and its stupid rules that kill women every day.

We have all the right in our land and it always will be called palestine, so if we want to get rid of the occupation, we have to respect our women cuz if you do not, the occupier will continue to use this matter to serve his advantage.

actions and consequences

[ferguson-6 · 7/10 · 3 March 2022]

Greetings again from the darkness. Writer-director Hany Abu-Assad has had two films nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. OMAR (2013) and PARADISE NOW (2005) were both excellent and deserving of such regard. His latest in 'based on true events' from Bethlehem, West Bank in Occupied Palestine. He shows us the intimidating wall around the city and points out the vulnerability of local women.

Reem (Maisa Ebd Elhadi) is in the chair for her appointment with Huda (Manal Awad) at the salon. The banter between the two women shows an obvious connection between a long-time client and her stylist. However, it's the first visit in a while as Reem has recently had a baby, and the infant is along for this appointment. The cheerful conversation comes to an abrupt halt following Huda's shocking actions. This extended take is difficult for us as viewers, as we see the entire thing unfold.

The ultimate betrayal between friends leads to a direct conversation that has Reem grasping for a proper solution and fearing for her life. Huda's actions have placed Reem and her family in imminent danger. Huda has blackmailed Reem into providing information to Israel's Secret Service ... spying on her community. On top of tending to her infant child and worrying about her new perilous situation, Reem is also dealing with a jealous husband at home. Yusef (Jalal Masarwa) thinks his biggest concern is a wife who may be sneaking around on him (she's not), when in fact, the danger is much more severe.

After the initial sequence in the salon, the bulk of the film is a back and forth between Reem desperately trying to save herself and her baby, and Huda being interrogated by Hasan (Ali Suliman), a Palestinian pushing Huda to identify those she has "turned" in the same manner she blackmailed Reem. The contrast between these two concurrent threads is striking. While both are ominous, Huda is exceedingly cool under pressure while Reem is frantic. The reason for the differences: Huda is resigned to her fate, while Reem remains hopeful.

It's The Occupation versus The Resistance, and to be a traitor likely means death. But what to do when blackmailed and caught in a no-win situation? That's Reem's predicament. At the same time, Huda, already a societal outcast as a divorcee, has played her role and fully understands what that means. To ensure we "get" the existence women are living, director Abu-Assad inserts a scene in a clinic where a pregnant woman begs for another test after it's announced she's having another daughter. This perfectly illustrates the value of women caught up in the geopolitical battle between Israel and Palestine.

In theaters and On Demand beginning March 4, 2022.

Good Story 👍.

[sarmadsaad-66288 · 6/10 · 16 March 2022]

Good Actors and Writers and Story, I don't know if it reality story.

If the story tells the reality, it is considered as raising awareness and caution.

A complex criticism

[Elinee · 8/10 · 9 February 2022]

"Hany Abu-Assad's political and emotional thriller explores a dangerous clash between two women struggling to cope with life under occupation.

Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad, whose films Paradise Now and Omar were both nominated for Oscars, continues to deliver hard-hitting stories from the moral frontline. In Huda's Salon, that line is located in "Bethlehem, West Bank, Occupied Palestine." In a thriller of political and emotional twists and turns, Abu-Assad reveals a society poisoned by the betrayal and intrigue that comes with occupation.

Reem (Maisa Abd Elhadi) visits Huda's hair salon for her usual treatment. As they chat, what starts as a lovely domestic drama shifts hard when Reem is betrayed by Huda (Manal Awad) and thrown into a dangerously compromising situation. She's offered only one way out: work with Israel's secret service, spying on her own community. As Reem tries to extricate herself from an impossible dilemma, Huda's actions threaten her own safety. As in every region torn apart by war, the broader battle lines and larger violence also take a more intimate form between individuals trying to survive at any cost.

In sharp scenes that cut to the heart of the conflict, Huda's Salon turns its lens inward, ruthlessly exploring how living under constant threat of violence corrodes its characters' relationships and their grasp on moral certainty. Reem is drawn into the world of neighbours and friends spying on each other that Huda already secretly inhabits. With resistance fighters amongst them who show no hesitation to take the life of a traitor, these two women - whether innocent or compromised - face the harsh choices determined by their environment. "It's easier to occupy a society," Huda says at one point, "that is already repressing itself.""

Review from tiff.

In short: Not good at all!

[Modestency · 4/10 · 15 September 2021]

The beginning promised an intense story inspired by true events, but 10 or 15 minutes into the movie that quickly faded away.

As an Arabic speaker; the dialogue reminded me of 6th or 7th grade writing classes with a wooden language that is full of naïve and overused expressions. The weakness in the dialogue\acting especially flourishes when the interrogation scenes between Huda and the very fashionable Palestinian resistance member start.

Not to mention that this film is supposedly shedding a light on a just cause like the daily struggles of Palestinian under occupation so having the nude scenes felt a little unnecessary in this setting. And was rather used to prove that Arab cinema can be "Progressive" too!

Impressive and compelling film

[Aleef005 · 10/10 · 9 February 2024]

This was based on a true situation where isreali secret service used to infiltrate salons in the west bank, use the owners to drug women and take nude and suggestive photos of them for blackmail. Because of this, there are very few salons in the west bank out of fear of that women would be targeted in such ways.

This movie shows how one woman, Reem, is forced into this situation and has to make hard decisions of have to save herself and her daughter. She doesn't know who to trust because everyone seems to have an agenda of their own.

We feel for Reem as she struggles to find a way to get out of the hands of the secret service and stay hidden from the resistance who don't know how innocent she really is. Her situation leaves us wondering what we would do if we were backed into a corner in the same way she was.

The movie shows how far the isreali government would go to oppress a population such as resorting to blackmailing innocent people who have nothing to do with the resistance and just want to live a regular life. We see the struggles the Palestinians in the west bank have to go through to deal with such situations, and how to protect themselves and their families.

I highly recommend this film and many others from Hany Abu-Assad. His work really shows you what life under occupation is like and the struggle for freedom.

A failed criticism of the patriarchy and a society at war with itself

[fdeconde · 1/10 · 16 March 2022]

This film could have provided a powerful view into the relationships within a society that has been damaged internally by almost a century of Occupation as well as the plight of women in what sometimes remains a very patriarchal culture, and yet it was nothing more than a sensationalist thriller with no characters that were truly sympathetic, and a plot that lacked realism.

Reem was portrayed as a victim, and yet she was a very articulate woman who emasculated her husband verbally in every dialogue with him. The marriage was toxic but no other marriages were depicted. There are plenty of good marriages in Palestinian society, and there are excellent films like 'Pomegranates and Myrrh' that show a more balanced view of the problems faced by couples who live under Occupation, and how there can be mutual support and strength in adversity.

One cannot believe that a Palestinian woman would give Rohypnol to another Palestinian woman in order to force her to become a collaborator, Further, one cannot believe that the victim would not simply go to the Resistance for help rather than feeling she had no options, and walk the streets with her baby aimlessly.

What this film depicted was a society of cowards and Palestinians are anything but cowards, having remaned on the ground despite every kind of military threat including massacres over the decades. Of course the Occupation has created a society at war with itself in many ways, but a good film would have been more balanced, and given us at least one sympathetic character. It failed to do so.

Reem does not even allow her husband to show any fatherly interest in his daughter, yet she is willing to consider total abandonment of her baby in the form of suicide. When he leaves with the baby and locks the front door, she is rendered powerless,but surely she could have smashed a window.

The only moment when any character shows any dignity or courage is when the collaborator Houda goes to her execution. The fact that the male model she hired simply is set on fire but her interrogator allows her a generous amount of time to try to explain her indefensible actions somehow made me feel she was treated more gently because she was a woman!

The Resistance leader confesses he was responsible as a child for the death of his friend because he was too cowardly to own up to his actions. Is this supposed to represent the real character of the shebab? Day after day, young Palestinian boys and girls show incredible courage, honour and detemination in confronting tanks and machine guns with nothing but stones in their hands.

There is much to criticise In traditional patriarchal societies but Palestinian mothers, wives and daughters are known for their courage and loyalty in the face of unbearable horrors.

This film has garnered more attention than it deserves because of the shocking scene where Reem is shown completely nude, kmocked out by the drugs given to her by her hairdresser. Were it not for this, it would not merit even a review.

Watch '3000 Nights' or 'Eyes of a Thief' or 'Pomegranates and Myrrh' instead. There is a wealth of excellent cinema from Palestine that is both based on true facts and shows the beauty of the land and its culture as well as the problems faced by its people.

The cure is often as bad as the disease

[Blue-Grotto · 8/10 · 20 March 2022]

Certain therapies aim to kill healthy cells as well as the malicious, and in the same manner societies treat their own citizens to horrors while attempting to achieve some good.

Reem, a newlywed with a baby girl, visits her favorite salon where her coffee is spiked and she is blackmailed into providing information on her neighbors for Israel. Soon thereafter, before Reem can decide what to do, her handler is captured by Palestinians. Reem is out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Huda's Salon is the true story of people trying to survive in the walled city of Bethlehem, on the West Bank. Women are especially vulnerable in this society poisoned by betrayal and violence since at least 1967. Who to trust comes down to who people fear the most. The film is enthralling for the truths it reveals about a community that represses itself and where people are compromised in multiple ways. While the acting is not top tier, it is believable. From the director of Paradise Now.

Awful

[ckvcvasc · 1/10 · 11 March 2022]

This is completely misleading and terrible This is the worst movie I've seen in a long time Terrible acting and no need for nudity to display the life in the jewish sector.

Dramatic and Truth Telling

[catrosemonroe · 9/10 · 9 February 2024]

At first the movie seems like a classic tale of women in a town, gossiping and hanging out. Very quickly this movie takes its dark turn and has us all wondering: "what is the truth". The main character is caught between a rock and hard place, and with seemingly no way out takes us along on a journey through the day after the world ended. This movie plainly is a haunting tale of collateral damage.

Our protagonist Reem is powerful, she is a representation of a strong Palestinian mother, who is striped of her options, and her ability to provide safety for her family. There are some amazing murals and shots throughout the film that aid this idea of her being genuine and powerful. As the movie goes on Reem does EVERYTHING she can for the sake of her daughter without even a thought for herself.

While watching this movie we all must ask: "can liars ever believe someone else can be telling the truth"? The truth is such a provocative and fragile thing.

Powerful story

[cougar-78958 · 10/10 · 9 February 2024]

As I watched the movie, I kept thinking about power and powerlessness. The strength of the characters was palpable while the situations they found themselves seemed impossible. The acting was well done and never felt exaggerated. The bonds formed were believable and heartbreaking. I watched the movie with a group interested in learning more about the Palestinian experience and discussed the ways in which women are especially vulnerable in this context. It is an important watch and a story that is not commonly told. Again and again I am struck by how powerful and determined Palestinian women are.

Awesome film

[fadids-55698 · 10/10 · 10 March 2022]

The director tried to react the women sufferance in the arab country, where is the connection between coupels is fear, which reflect the unfaith relation.

The movie is designed to reap awards, becarful, the film contain's nudity sceen.