Soumaya

This is the first film to examine the impact of the state of emergency imposed in France following the November 2015 attacks in Paris. After fourteen years of employment, Soumaya learned overnight that she had been dismissed and discovered the reasons for her dismissal on television that same evening. She then decides to exercise a very particular right of reply. From a Middle East Eye Review:  Based on a true story, the narrative unfolds as a series of portraits, both archetypal and realist: the worried mother urging her daughter not to make waves; the luggage handler who has rediscovered his faith through his wife who has converted to Islam; the lawyer of immigrant descent, torn between his desire to fully integrate into French society and the injustices he sees all around him; and the imam whose mosque is searched on the basis of slender evidence. As such, Soumaya is an unprecedented look at the state of emergency in France from the viewpoint of the victims, whose experience often goes unacknowledged. (Washington D.C. Independent Film Festival)