The 2021 movie Huda's Salon has a compelling premise: a thriller set in Palestine and sees one woman blackmailing a young mother into becoming a spy. All the pieces are there for captivating cinema — espionage, betrayal, competing interests, danger, and, of course, pathos. It's an idea that should work, and writer, director and producer Hany Abu-Assad does offer some memorable moments and inspired visuals. Yet Huda's Salon stumbles along, not quite living up to the potential. The setting and sociopolitical backdrop are intriguing and exciting. Unfortunately, Abu-Assad fails in the movie's overall execution.
Critically acclaimed Palestinian actress Maisa Abd Elhadi stars in Huda's Salon as Reem, a frustrated mother caught in a desperate situation. Reem has an infant daughter in her care, and is growing distant from her demanding, controlling husband. Her hairdresser, Huda (Manal Awad) drugs her, takes suggestive photos, and then tells Reem she has to work for the Secret Service or face the consequences of those photos getting leaked. Although Reem quickly leaves, her distraught appearance attracts the attention of revolutionaries, and the situation quickly escalates — with potentially devastating repercussions.
Huda's Salon offers a glimpse into a world Western audiences don't often get to see, and Abu-Assad takes care to build up Reem's world. She takes her daughter everywhere, carried bundled in a basket. Audiences see her riding public transit, waiting in a doctor's office, and serving her in-laws dinner. It's an intimate view of her life that shows how vulnerable she is as a mother with such a new, fragile child in her care. To her credit, Elhadi's performance here is strong, balancing visceral fear and palpable anger with restraint, bringing Reem to life. Despite many emotional moments, Reem never comes across as overwrought. Framed as a character study, Huda's Salon is a nuanced portrait of motherhood, seen through the lens of a Palestinian woman — but as a thriller, it lacks teeth.
Unfortunately, Huda's Salon is clumsy in its storytelling, being far too heavy-handed with its gender themes and not spending nearly enough time building tension and stakes. The movie quickly devolves into a slow, uncomfortable suspense that reeks of dread and despair. What's happening to Reem feels unfair, but also hopeless — and it's hard to make that kind of story "thrilling." It can be done: there are plenty of slow-burn films that are in the upper echelon on cinema — Read Window and Vertigo both come to mind — but Huda's Salon fails to build momentum, instead, falling into a drifting tedium. Right from the start, the story seems headed for an inevitable conclusion; the journey needs to feel substantial and meaningful since the course is basically set.
Reem is a passive player in much of Huda's Salon, through no fault of her own. The movie frames her circumstance as dire, but also essentially inescapable. She did nothing to deserve what's happening to her, and there's virtually nothing she can do to avoid getting sucked into a conflict she wants no part of. It's a tragedy really. Interspersed with the main storyline is Huda's story; she herself was blackmailed into working for the Secret Service, but she's turned from victim to victimizer, forcing other — and much more innocent — women into working with the Secret Service. There are perks to this work, but the consequences of being discovered are deadly. Huda's plot fails to offer a compelling counterpoint to Reem's, however, and the result is a disconnected story.
Huda's Salon also tries to paint a picture of how suffocatingly oppressive life can be for women in occupied Palestine. The movie opens with a brief history of the region, stating life is harder for female citizens. This social message is admirable, but isn't built up sufficiently to feel impactful, and many of the interactions — meant to garner sympathy for Reem and other Palestinian women — ring hollow. Ultimately, Huda's Salon is a case of an exciting concept that can't maintain its own momentum.
Huda's Salon released in U.S. theaters on March 4, 2022. It is 91 minutes long and is rated R for violent content and nudity.