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The 2025 US release of the restored version of Lebanese director Heiny Srour’s fiercely feminist Leila And The Wolves could scarcely be more timely as conflict is again raging in the Middle East. Mixing fiction with archive footage, her Arabian Nights-inspired tale takes us time travelling with her protagonist (Nabila Zeitouni), from 1975 London, through a history of women’s resistance in Lebanon and Palestine – to colonialism and the patriarchy – as well as considering her own future self. Stung by a man’s (Rafik Ali Ahmad) suggestion that “women had nothing to do with politics” in the past Leila takes him with her, as he emerges in various different, often less than flattering, roles along the way.

Beyond being ambitious it was also a dangerous film to make, shot during the Lebanese civil war and with Syrian conflict looming. Srour doesn’t hold back as she weaves together her various stories and.

Leila and the Wolves just got its first-ever U.S. theatrical with a restored 40th anniversary edition, and it's an important moment in cinematic history. It's yet another example that the traditional "canon" of great cinema has a Western bias that has largely neglected the Third World. The Lebanese film by Heiny Srour is a groundbreaking epic of Arab cinema, what Srour called, "An archaeological excavation of the collective memory of women of the Middle East. I wanted to rewrite history from a female and feminist point of view." And that she does, presenting a complicated and scathing critique of imperialism and patriarchy while also documenting 50 years of Palestinian and Lebanese struggles.

From a Western lens, Leila and the Wolves is "experimental," but its unique structure reflects the art history of the region, with its focus on mosaics, repetition, and patterned tapestries. It follows a Lebanese woman as she prepares...

Ten years after Heiny Srour made history at Cannes with her debut “The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived,” which made her the first Arab woman to direct a movie shown at the festival, the filmmaker released her seminal 1984 classic “Leila and the Wolves.” Now, thanks to Bam Cinemas, Srour’s legacy is gaining international attention.

Bam Cinemas will be screening both newly restored films to honor the U.S. release of “Leila and the Wolves,” thanks to distributor Several Futures. Srour, who is based in Paris, will be in attendance for the week-long run at Bam Cinemas.

“I am so delighted to meet my American public,” Srour said in a press statement. “My films are a bridge of peace, and that’s what we need right now. Without distributor Several Futures, the wolves would have eaten Leila.”

Graham Carter of Several Futures added, “The importance of Heiny Srour’s films cannot be understated.