For Palestinian filmmaker and academic Laila Abbas, the call is coming from inside the house. With her strong debut feature, Thank You for Banking With Us!, she takes aim at the men who refuse the social and financial responsibility that comes with their status at the top of the food chain – and, instead, simply take advantage of the system. After several short films and a mid-length documentary, Abbas now writes and directs a drama with elements of black comedy about bickering Palestinian sisters who team up against a greater evil: the abuse of a patriarchal sociocultural and legal framework. The film has world-premiered in the Official Competition of the 2024 BFI London Film Festival.

Sisters Mariam (Clara Khoury) and Noura (Yasmine Al Massri) – an underappreciated mother of two and a full-time beautician, respectively – scheme to withdraw and split the money that their late father (Edward Muallem) left in the bank before their semi-estranged brother Akram can get to it. As dictated by Sharia law, Akram is entitled to half of the funds and half of the house, despite the fact that he left for the USA many years ago and refused to help care for their father. Set in the West Bank’s Ramallah, the film takes place in the space of just over a day, from the time Noura discovers her father’s body to the following day, when the sisters have pre-determined they’ll report his death.

Abbas frames her drama as two siblings against the system as they encounter, around every corner, men who don’t believe that their wives are supposed to be happy. “Should I wait for Palestine to be free to get a divorce?” retorts Mariam, who dropped out of university to care for her two children (Adam Khattar and Qais Al Sheikh) and ungrateful husband (Ashraf Barhoum). While sometimes unevenly paced, Abbas’s script is filled with snappy, brightly burning lines of pointed irony, such as Noura’s remark that “Akram will take this money and spend it in the ‘land of the infidels’”, while the sisters will “spend it here, in the land of wretched Muslims like us”.

Like in Scandar Copti’s labyrinthian Palestinian family drama Happy Holidays [+lee también:
crítica
entrevista: Scandar Copti
ficha de la película], politico-national undertones of resistance are felt throughout the film as a mode of existence. However, both directors are laser-focused on interrogating more interpersonal strife and forms of progressivist, feminist struggle within their own communities. The script lacks beef in the subplot of Mariam’s troubles with her husband and misbehaving older son, but Abbas gives us a taste for the women’s interlocking everyday battles. Gender politics reign, but sisterly solidarity also emerges as a welcome byproduct.

The two Palestinian-US actresses are a compelling duo that feed off of each other’s energy. They are outfitted simply by costume designer Hamada Atallah, who emphasises that they are simply two ordinary women trying to make things work for themselves. While the pair don’t act as foils to one another, some scenes even border on buddy-comedy territory. A hilarious jingle for the Palestinian Savings Bank by Ahmad Elsawy at the film’s midway point grants the work its title and a genuine laugh-out-loud moment.

While most of the movie takes place at night, the well-lit and contrasting – but not oversaturated – production design (by DoP Konstantin Kröning and production designer Rami Arda) suits the film’s hopeful and gently comedic tone. The shadows of the evening seem to hang over the begrudging duo, but they’re never fully obscured. We’ll always be happy to see Noura’s bright-red trousers and car, for instance, even if the sisters have to steer the rustbucket out of a muddy pit.

Thank You for Banking With Us! was staged by Palestine’s August Film and Germany’s In Good Company in co-production with Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Fund, Qatar’s Metafora Production and Egypt’s Lagoonie Film production. Its world sales are managed by MAD World.