Bank Robbery Drama Anchors Winter Screenings Across Middle East

A Lebanese bank heist thriller anchors a winter slate of Middle Eastern films that includes an Iranian satire set days before American and Israeli strikes, an Iraqi-Kurdish action picture, and an Egyptian family drama. The season's offerings depart from the familiar festival circuit fare of poverty, war, and migration that local audiences have grown weary of, according to a review in Middle East Eye.

Furies marks the debut feature of Beirut-born, Los Angeles-based Rami Kodeih. Inspired by 2019 robberies carried out by ordinary citizens trying to recover savings frozen during Lebanon's economic crisis, the film follows Maro, played by Rym Mroue, a hairdresser and single mother, and her sister Dalia, played by Maria Nakouzi, an employee at a water-truck company. When Dalia is diagnosed with uterine cancer, Maro goes to withdraw money but is refused by a bank manager who says the institution is not legally bound to serve clients under such circumstances. With no justice system to turn to, Maro plans the robbery with Sunshine, played by Issam Bou Khaled, an elderly former Phalangist fighter, and Hamza, played by Hasan Akil, a co-worker of Dalia's who owes money to a local mobster.

Ali Asghari's A Bit of Light reworks Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry, setting the story in Tehran in February 2026, days before strikes by the United States and Israel. The film unfolds over 24 hours and follows Arash, played by Misagh Zareh, an idealistic physician contemplating suicide, haunted by the treatment of protesters during the 2025-26 demonstrations. A doorman offers to tape the office windows against the coming attacks and tells Arash that the US will spare civilians because "Trump won't lie!".

Mohsen Gharaie's Falling House casts Farhad Aslani as Rachid, a low-level prison guard suspended over bribery accusations, whose family faces eviction from a home slated for demolition. His daughter Ensi, played by Laleh Marzban, plans to leave Iran for Turkey to pursue a modeling career, and Rachid locks his family inside. Halkawt Mustafa's No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman follows Vyan, played by Avan Jamal, a Kurdish-Norwegian woman who travels to Iraq in 2014, is captured by the Islamic State group after Mosul falls, and later kills more than 100 fighters as a Peshmerga sniper before returning to Norway to find her sister.

Ashgan El Hamus's Elbaraneya, a Danish-Egyptian director's first feature, is a family drama set in the Egyptian countryside, shot with mostly non-professional actors in a cinema verite style. The review notes that Kodeih's Furies is not without flaws: the relationship between the two sisters lacks depth, and the final car chase is awkwardly staged. Middle East Eye calls it possibly the best Arab film of 2026.