Huda's Salon

Nadia visits Huda’s salon for a haircut and a chat – but Huda has other plans for her. The hairdresser has laid a trap for Nadia and takes degrading photos of her, which she then threatens to show to Nadia’s jealous husband if she doesn’t cooperate with the Israeli secret service. Shortly after the incident, the Palestinian resistance apprehends Huda. Now both women must find their way out of a rather hopeless situation.

Director Hany Abu-Assad is a familiar name at Arab Film Days. His Oscar-nominated thriller Omar was shown at the 2014th edition of the festival, with Abu-Assad as a guest. With Huda’s Salon, he continues to captivate audiences with dark and unsettling stories from Palestine.

The thriller genre has become the Palestinian director’s way to address complex societal issues. In this film he sheds a light on women that become victims of harassment and abuse, and how society wrongfully lays the blame on them.

Selma Benmalek

Director

Hany Abu-Assad (b. 1961) is one of Palestine's most famous filmmakers. He is known for films like Rana's Wedding (2002), but first received his major international breakthrough with the film Paradise Now! (2005), which won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for an Oscar. Later, he made films like Omar (2013), which was also Oscar-nominated, Idol (2015), The Mountain Between Us (2017), and Huda's Saloon (2021).

This film is part of