10/17/2025
CINEMA EMERSON PRESENTS
the opening film of the Boston Palestine Film Festival
an EXCLUSIVE Emerson community only screening
Laila Abbas’ debut feature length film THANK YOU FOR BANKING WITH US
“When their father dies, two sisters must get their hands on the inheritance before their brother finds out and claims half of the money.”
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXqMOFsoLGc
LIVE Q&A with Abbas to be moderated by Emerson Assistant Professor Hanadi Elyan
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT:
“A heist film? A thriller? A familial drama? A comedy? The film is all of these.
Mariam and Noura may not actually exist, but in my mind, they’re alive, breathing, and constantly arguing. They’re not polished or glamorous, they’re average women with real-life qualities. They’re honest and politically and religiously incorrect. I feel very close to them because they remind me a lot of myself and my sisters.
I grew up in a family of women with my father being the only outcast because of his gender. He didn’t have what it takes to be one of us; he didn’t gossip enough, wasn’t attentive, and couldn’t tell a story properly.
This sense of gender superiority was shaken when I was faced with a society that doesn’t see women as superior or even equal. Religion in my country still casts its shadows on how we perceive life and how we set our codes of conduct and laws.
In this particular story, inheritance laws are put under the microscope. In families with both sons and daughters, the male gets double what the female gets, that’s why the women in this story have to take matters into their own hands. Many real women lost inheritance battles to their brothers and male relatives and they simply couldn’t fight the system. If real women can’t beat the system at this point, let fictional women lead the way.
This story is about womanhood and the need for women to stay close emotionally and physically to triumph. Even against the harshest winds and their own disagreements, these sisters need each other. It’s a story about sisters who, having gone through their respective tragedies and heartbreaks, bond together to become stronger. This life-changing adventure feels immediate, urgent, and intense.”
