You Go, GIRLS OF THE SUN

GIRLS OF THE SUN (2018)

Starring Golshifteh Farahani, Emmanuelle Bercot, Zubeyde Bulut, Erol Afsin. Directed by Eva Husson. (115 min)

ON BLU-RAY FROM COHEN MEDIA GROUP

Review by Fluffy the Fearless😸

Next time you feel like bemoaning your life, consider this…

Bahar (Golshifteh Farahani) was once a successful, French-educated lawyer. Then ISIS arrived in Kurdistan, killing her husband and father right in front of her. They take her son away and rape her sister, who commits suicide immediately afterwards. Bahar herself is repeatedly raped and sold by one ISIS member after another.

We learn this in vivid flashbacks throughout Girls of the Sun, showing how she came to be the de-facto leader of a tight-knit squad of women freedom fighters, all of whom also escaped their terrorist captors. The story at-present has French reporter Mathilde (Emmanuelle Bercot) assigned to follow them as they attempt to reclaim their village from some ISIS stragglers. Since they’ve been snatching Kurdish boys to train as soldiers, Bahar believes her son – if he’s alive – may still be in the village.

Mrs. Snake Plissken.

Though the action during the siege itself is intense and violent, Girls of the Sun is just-as-much about brief-but-powerful bond between these two women. What Bahar was forced to endure during the increasingly lengthy flashbacks is as tension-filled as the combat scenes and far more disturbing (though delicately handled). Mathilde is also motivated by tragedy. Not only has she been permanently disfigured by shrapnel, her photographer husband was blown-up during an previous ISIS attack. What makes this film particularly harrowing is that even though it’s technically fiction, writer-directer Eva Husson states in a supplementary interview that most of the events we witness are based on actual incidents.

And to think I have the gall to bitch about how the gophers in my yard are making life hell.

Quietly suspenseful, with outstanding performances by the two leads, Girls on the Sun isn’t simply an action film. Not in the traditional sense, anyway. It’s also a sobering eye-opener to what women and children have been enduring at the hands of misogynist zealots. However, seeing how these women muster the collective resolve to fight back is ultimately inspirational. And if nothing else, it’ll put your own misery in perspective.

EXTRA KIBBLES

"CONVERSIONS FROM THE QUAD” - A 20 minute Q&A with writer-director Eva Husson.

TRAILER

KITTY CONSENSUS:

PURR-R-R...LIKE A GOOD SCRATCH BEHIND THE EARS.