{"id":79,"date":"2026-05-17T12:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T12:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=79"},"modified":"2026-05-17T12:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T12:12:17","slug":"the-station-review-a-long-gestating-female-centered-project-set-in-yemen-thats-well-worth-the-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=79","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Station\u2019 Review: A Long-Gestating, Female-Centered Project Set in Yemen That\u2019s Well Worth the Wait"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nSara Ishaq\u2019s highly anticipated fiction debut \u201cThe Station\u201d is the multi-layered feature we\u2019ve been hoping would follow her impressive 2013 documentary \u201cThe Mulberry House.\u201d Much has changed in Yemen \u2014 for the worse \u2014 over the past decade, and the country\u2019s absence on screen apart from one-dimensional news reports puts extra pressure on any filmmaker looking to humanize its population. Ishaq is aware of this responsibility but not straitjacketed by a need to \u201cexplain\u201d: Instead she\u2019s made a film peopled with women and boys who go beyond simple archetypes, setting joyful female solidarity against omnipresent conflict in a way designed to communicate with a broad demographic.<\/p>\n

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\n\tGiven the film\u2019s strengths, it\u2019s frustrating to see how Cannes\u2019 main sections once again ignore Arab content (especially this year); their loss, since \u201cThe Station\u201d is bound to be one of the buzzier titles in Critics\u2019 Week. The titular locale is a women-only gas station whose resourceful owner Layal (Manal Al-Mulaiki) creates a safe space offering contraband lingerie and girl talk alongside severely rationed gasoline, though it\u2019s the comfort of mutual support away from religion and politics that draws the women back day-by-day. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the early scenes radiate the relaxed ease of sisterhood escaping a harsh reality, the tone shifts to a darker register, both emotionally and visually. We\u2019ve seen these sorts of female-only spaces before in films set in Muslim-majority countries (\u201cCaramel\u201d is but one of many examples), and though there is a familiarity in the emotional warmth, \u201cThe Station\u201d has a specificity that ensures it doesn\u2019t feel derivative.<\/p>\n

\n\tA masterful brief tracking shot opens the film as women dressed in the long black sharshaf and niqab walk into town or line up in their cars, offering a rapid introduction to an environment devoid of men, where the loud whoosh of fighter jets invade the soundscape and walls are plastered with flyers of adolescent boys proclaimed martyrs.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cNo men, no weapons, no politics\u201d is the sign outside the station, making it a liberating space where temporary escape from the civil war feels possible. Inside, Layla gets things ready with the help of her 12-year-old brother Laith (Rashad Khaled), who unthinkingly sings along to the jingle-like propaganda song coming from the radio while some of his peers outside play at being soldiers.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo gain entry to the station\u2019s courtyard, the women must remove their niqabs and the armbands identifying which side they\u2019re on in the conflict. Inside is another world, of laughter, softness and friendship: Some women smoke sheesha, while sassy older Jamila (Fariha Hassan) sells wigs and makeup. The lightness abruptly ends with the arrival of Umm Abdallah (Shorooq Mohammed), conservative wife of the local sheikh, come to inform Layla that she needs to pay a significant fee to keep Laith at home; otherwise, he\u2019ll be sent to fight like all boys when they reach his age. In desperation, Layla calls her estranged sister Shams (Abeer Mohammed), living in territory governed by the other side. Controlling forces insist she be accompanied by a male chaperone, in this case 13-year-old Ahmed (Saleh Al-Marshahi), tall as an adult but still very much a boy.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe script, by Ishaq and Nadia Eliewat (Sophie Boutros\u2019 \u201cSolitaire\u201d), offers a satisfying duality in the pairing of the sisters alongside the two boys. In a society where the men are either fighting or dead, the women are forced to assume the role of protectors \u2014 even though it\u2019s Laith and Ahmed, for all intents and purposes still children, who are expected to fight. Layla and Shams have become canny in learning how to survive, but Shams wasn\u2019t able to save their other brother Tareq or her husband, both of whom were killed. That\u2019s the source of tension between the sisters, and Layla is determined, at all costs, to ensure Laith doesn\u2019t meet the same fate.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the taut relationship between the sisters is an effective, time-tested plot device, more surprising is the way the script fleshes out the two boys. Laith is starved for playmates and nurturing male company, self-conscious of his awkward position as the sole male in an otherwise all-female environment. The friendship that quickly develops between him and the initially ambiguous, ungainly Ahmed is completely natural and yet its very normalcy highlights the disrupted world around them, where childhood\u2019s customary development is strangled and boys are forced to be \u201cmen.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Station\u201d subtly weaves in such quietly effective moments, including a stand-out scene towards the end when the women use their hijabs to protect their space against angry (and unseen) men. Its satisfying resolution reminds us just how rare it is to see a film acknowledging the power women can derive from an item of clothing almost exclusively seen in the Global North as a sign of oppression.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo well-cast are all the performers that viewers will forget they\u2019re almost entirely non-professionals. That couldn\u2019t have been easy for such a long-gestating project, requiring a significant amount of workshopping in a country that wasn\u2019t their own: For obvious reasons, \u201cThe Station\u201d was shot in Jordan. Yet the ease of the dialogue, the sense of spontaneity and warmth, equally natural in the most strained moments, never falters. Cinematographer Amine Berrada proved he knows a thing or two about light in the 2023 Cannes competition entry \u201cBanel & Adama,\u201d and here he works with honeyed tonalities at the start \u2014 appropriate, given that Yemen\u2019s honey is arguably the best in the world. His fluid camera, observational without being intrusive, expertly delineates the safe space of Layla\u2019s courtyard, shifting registers as things get darker until near the end, when jumbled night reinforces the tense uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Read more Javier Bardem Says Tide Is Turning on Hollywood Speaking Up for Palestine: Those Making Blacklists \u2018Will Be the Ones Suffering the Consequences\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\t\t\u2018The Station\u2019 Review: A Long-Gestating, Female-Centered Project Set in Yemen That\u2019s Well Worth the Wait<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n

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\t\tReviewed online, May 14, 2026. In Cannes Film Festival (Critics\u2019 Week). Running time: 112 MIN.<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n

    \n
  • \nProduction:<\/strong>
    \n(Yemen-Jordan-France-Germany-The Netherlands-Norway-Qatar) A Screen Project (a Ta Films Company), Georges Films, One Two Films, KeplerFilm, Barentsfilm, Setara Films, The Imaginarium Films production. (World sales: Paradise City Sales, Paris.) Producers: Fred Burle, Sol Bondy, Nicolas Lepr\u00eatre, Nadia Eliewat, Sara Ishaq. Executive producers: Shivani Pandya Malhotra, Sangeeta Desai, Ivan Samokhvalov, Alexander Tsekalo, Gavriil Gordeev, Sergey Sishkin, Sata Cissokho, Alexandre Moreau, Jon Kilik, Mohamed Siam. Co-producers: Ingrid Lill H\u00f8gtun, Rula Nasser, Koji Nelissen, Derk-Jan Warrink.\t\t\t<\/li>\n
  • \nCrew:<\/strong>
    \nDirector: Sara Ishaq. Screenplay: Ishaq, Nadia Eliewat. Camera: Amine Berrada. Editor: Romain Namura. Music: Tessa Rose Jackson, Darius Timmer.\t\t\t<\/li>\n
  • \nWith:<\/strong>
    \nManal Al-Mulaiki, Abeer Mohammed, Rashad Khaled, Saleh Al-Marshahi, Fariha Hassan, Amal Esmail, Shorooq Mohammed, Randa Mohammed, Fatima Muthanna. (Arabic dialogue) \t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A women-only haven in Yemen\u2019s civil war is the backdrop to a story of siblings clashing in Sara Ishaq’s Cannes Critics’ Week entry ‘The Station.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,97,98],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-sara-ishaq","tag-the-station"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018The Station\u2019 Review: A Long-Gestating, Female-Centered Project Set in Yemen That\u2019s Well Worth the Wait - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=79\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018The Station\u2019 Review: A Long-Gestating, Female-Centered Project Set in Yemen That\u2019s Well Worth the Wait - 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