A trio of Palestinian women — straight-laced and veiled college student Nour (Shaden Kanboura), dauntless chain-smoker Laila (Mouna Hawa), and lesbian DJ Salma (Sana Jammelieh) — share an apartment in Tel Aviv. The two who are party girls find their bookish roommate to be hopelessly square, and she returns the favor by casting them in a strictly boorish light. The clash of cultures soon breaks down, but it isn’t until the characters start taking turns being emotionally and/or physically abused (including a fairly graphic rape) that the film starts letting emotional messaging take the place of perceptive storytelling. It’s lushly photographed (by Itay Gross) and brimming with atmosphere, and all that potent portent might have been understandable if first-time director Maysaloun Hamoud had offered something more than conventionalized solutions to send audiences packing. With Ziad Hamdi. (2016) — Scott Marks
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