Part of Music City Mondays.
SIRENS intimately chronicles the lives and music of Slave to Sirens, Lebanon’s first all-female metal band whose burgeoning fame is set against the backdrop of the Lebanese revolution. Its five members wrestle with friendship, sexuality and destruction as their music serves as a refuge to Beirut’s youth culture.
At the band’s core are its two founding members, Lilas Mayassi and Shery Bechara, whose complicated relationship and subsequent tense fallout threatens the very fabric of the band. An even greater looming threat, however, is Lebanon’s criminalization of homosexuality, as well as the wholly devastating effects of their country’s political regime.
Despite their obvious challenges, the members of Slave to Sirens persist in trying to create a revolution of their own: living their truth.
“[Director Rita] Baghdadi has harnessed something truly special. Like its fractious characters, SIRENS is both humble and arresting, relatable and unique. It will stay with you long after the band has played their final chords.” —Lena Wilson, The Wrap “A smartly crafted, hugely entertaining look at the band as it goes through growing pains, fights for bookings, and navigates inter-band dyke drama against the backdrop of a city under constant threat of attack.” —Shayna Maci Warner, Paste Magazine “Even if you’re not a huge metal fan, you can’t help but bop to the screeching vocals and thrumming guitar riffs, if not in pleasure then in amazement at the sheer moxie of these young radicals.” —Jude Dry, IndieWire
