Opening Night! Director Q&A at both screenings!

Women of different religions in a remote Lebanese village band together and invent schemes to prevent their men from killing each other in the intractable religious conflict that surrounds their community. This entertaining and unlikely near-musical tears down stereotypes of women in the Middle East and uses humor to explore serious subjects, with one eye toward Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and the other toward Bollywood. Winning audience awards at the Toronto and San Sebastian Film Festivals after a successful premiere in Cannes, Labaki’s follow-up to the delicious Caramel is refreshing and unflinching. Inhabited by a cast of characters that promote an alternate vision of unity and sisterhood with irreverence and charming simplicity, the film gives short shrift to conventions and taboos. A Sony Pictures Classics release.