“A compelling and thrilling story, even if it can’t truly escape its genre trappings.”

“The road to freedom is always long.”

Between 2013 and 2016 the Islamic State (or IS for short) brutally ruled over 12 million people in large parts of Iraq and Syria. By 2019 they had to cede all of this territory thanks to a joint effort by American, Iraqi, and Kurdish forces, but the scars left behind predominantly on women, both physical and psychological, endure until this day. Young women, mostly Kurdish Yazidis, were sold on open markets as sex slaves for IS fighters to abuse. In Norwegian-Kurdish director Halkawt Mustafa’s fourth film No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman, he doesn’t shy away from this violence, but mainly uses his canvas to paint the bravery of the female Kurdish fighters that helped kick IS out of Iraq, one in particular. Based on conversations Mustafa had with several of these fighters, as well as the story by Nobel Peace Prize-winner Nadia Murad, herself a victim of these horrendous abuses, the film also sprinkles in parts of the story of Joanna Palani, a Danish-Kurdish woman who fought with the Peshmerga (Kurdish armed forces) as a sniper against IS. A tense revenge thriller set during one of Iraq’s darkest hours, No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman shows Mustafa very capable of telling a compelling and thrilling story, even if it can’t truly escape its genre trappings.

North of Mosul, 2016. Vyan (Avan Jamal, who carries the movie on her back like it’s a giant rifle) is a sniper with an all-female military unit of the Peshmerga. Her mission is to knock out pivotal IS forces so her comrades can attack their stronghold. Rescuing a young girl in the process makes her remember her other mission: saving her own sister Helin. Though born in the Kurdish part of Iraq, Vyan is now a Norwegian citizen since she and her parents got asylum when she was 12. After a car bombing she tried to prevent cuts a little too close, Vyan is brought back to Norway and given a choice: change her identity or face trial for the 100-plus kills to her name; they may have been terrorists, but fighting in a foreign war is illegal under Norwegian law. Following a distressed call by Helin and her captor, who goes by the call sign ‘The Swedish Sniper’, Vyan decides to go back and rescue her sister, even if it means having to face the memories of her parents’ murder and her own time in brutal captivity.

The opening scene of No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman sets the tone for what is to follow: in one long tracking shot we slowly follow the protagonist as she stalks through a church, radio chatter coming from somewhere in the building, as she tries to find a good vantage point for her mission. Expertly directed, the scene ratchets up the tension to breaking point when she finds the source of the crackling radio messages. It immediately signals that we are in for a tense ride. There are several such scenes throughout the film, to the point where they can become a bit repetitive, but Halkawt Mustafa’s mise-en-scène and John-Erling Holmenes Fredriksen’s camerawork keep you on the edge of your seat nevertheless. Although the body count ticks up with every scene that brings Vyan closer to her sister, Mustafa wisely keeps the violence against her at the hands of her ‘husband’, as well the deaths of the innocents trying to flee from the scourge of IS, off-screen. Somehow Vyan’s agonizing screams and the loud bangs of the sniper guns that take down those innocents are more of a gut punch than the shock of watching violence and death could ever deliver. Vyan’s revenge mission hardly holds any surprises until the final confrontation, which ends in a sudden climax and a somewhat unexpected result, but the film thrills nevertheless thanks to Mustafa knowing how to direct suspense like this. Hollywood, take note.

On the dramatic end of the spectrum the film heavily relies on Jamal’s abilities to, mostly non-verbally, convey Vyan’s anguish and despair. Supporting roles like Kanar Sarchl’s captain of the Peshmerga unit or Khalida Alaa Mahmud as a girl she rescues while executing her mission barely register as characters, which leaves Jamal with a lot of heavy lifting to do. She is more than up to the task, although Vyan’s solitary job mainly forces the actress to use her eyes, staring into the distance, to underline the emotional trauma. It’s mostly in her scenes with an older general (Kader Jalal) for whom she has to take out a trio of IS snipers that we get to see a little bit more of Vyan as a character. The short period in which the narrative moves back to Norway, where Jamal plays opposite Thorbjørn Harr as her case handler, gives too little and feels out of place, although it is important to the narrative.

While No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman mostly abides by the rules of the genre, what makes this revenge tale rather unusual is its female protagonist; generally such films are dominated by male leads. This portrait of a woman who won’t submit to evil is a tribute to the courage of both female Peshmerga fighters and the women who endured such a horrible ordeal and are willing to share their stories. Combined with Mustafa’s taut direction and ability to thrill, these stories are enough to make the film a success on a base level, as a genre effort that should play well outside of festivals.