SIRENS

DIRECTOR: Rita Baghdadi
2022 | Lebanon | 78 mins 

Against the backdrop of revolution and retaliatory violence in Beirut, Lilas and Shery, the rhythm and lead guitarists for Lebanon’s first all-woman thrash metal band Slave to Sirens, are struggling with their own dramas: families that want them to adopt traditional gender roles, queerness in a country where homosexuality can lead to prison, and the desire for creative self-expression in an environment that actively discourages it.

Things for Slave to Sirens begin to look up when they’re invited to play the legendary Glastonbury Festival in the UK, but simmering resentments over past and current girlfriends threaten to tear the five-piece apart… even as their city is overrun with protests as it tries to recover from the devastating port explosion of August 2020. Executive produced by Natasha Lyonne and Maya Rudolph, Sirens is documentarian Rita Baghdadi’s beautifully-crafted and poignant snapshot of a generation of Middle Eastern artists grappling with identity, sexuality, and interpersonal relationships while striving to create amid the shifting landscape of their country.