Sirens directed by Rita Baghdadi
(l. to r.) Lilas Mayassi and Shery Bechara, founders of the all-female Lebanese thrash metal band Slave to Sirens, as seen in the documentary Sirens, directed by Rita Baghdadi. Image courtesy of Rita Baghdadi

Get the first look at Sirens, directed by LA-based filmmaker Rita Baghdadi, set to World Premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Executive produced by Natasha Lyonne and Maya Rudolph (Animal Pictures), among others, Sirens follows the Middle East’s first all-female metal band as they wrestle with friendship, sexuality and destruction in their pursuit of becoming thrash metal rock stars. The film will be shown as part of the festival’s World Cinema Documentary Competition.

On the outskirts of Beirut, Lilas and her bandmates, Shery, Maya, Alma and Tatyana (Slave to Sirens), have big dreams but few opportunities. When the band’s appearance at a UK music festival isn’t the life-changer they had hoped for, Lilas comes home to Lebanon on the brink of collapse. At the same time, the complicated friendship between Lilas and her fellow guitarist Shery starts to fracture. The future of her band, her country and her dreams now all at stake, Lilas faces a crossroad. She must decide what kind of leader she will be, not only for her band, but also as a young woman struggling to define herself in Lebanon, a country in the Middle East as complex as each of the Sirens themselves.

Watch the first trailer clip from Sirens

Rita Baghdadi is a Moroccan-American director focused on character-driven stories with an intimate lens. Her first documentary, My Country No More, won Best Feature at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Her second, City Rising, won the Emmy Award for Best Social Issue Film.

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