Rita Baghdadi “Sirens” Doc About Middle East’s First All-Female Metal Band Lands at Oscilloscope

Films

Rita Baghdadi “Sirens” Doc About Middle East’s First All-Female Metal Band Lands at Oscilloscope

Get ready to rock: Oscilloscope Laboratories has landed North American rights to “Sirens,” a documentary charting the rise of the Middle East’s first all-female metal band, and is planning a theatrical release. A digital release will follow. Deadline broke the news about the acquisition.

“Sirens” made its world premiere at Sundance in January. Helmed by by Rita Baghdadi and set against the backdrop of the Lebanese revolution, the doc follows the co-founders and guitarists of Slave to Sirens, Lilas Mayassi and Shery Bechara.

“I have always wanted to make a film set in the MENA [Middle East and North Africa] region. I just always thought, because I’m Moroccan, that it would be set in Morocco. I wanted to make the kind of film I wished I had seen as a young woman, where female Arab characters were featured as complex humans rather than the harmful stereotypes I grew up with,” Baghdadi told us. “When I met Lilas, I was immediately drawn to her determination, and I recognized a lot of my younger self in her. Then when I met the rest of the band, I realized that there were so many beautiful, inspiring, and heartbreaking layers to their story that it had the potential to resonate with a lot of people. Recognition and resonance are what drew me to make this film.”

Asked what she’d like folks to think about after watching the film, the director and producer emphasized that she wants to “challenge western perceptions of what it’s like to be a young woman in the Middle East today. And I want young women in the region to be able to see themselves on screen in a way they might never have before,” she added.

No word on a release date yet.

“I’m so excited to work with O-Scope in North America. I’ve admired their punk-rock spirit for years and I know they’ll be a meaningful partner on ‘Sirens,'” Baghdadi commented.