Sirens

Based in Beirut, Slave to Sirens is the Middle East’s first all-female thrash metal band. Co-founded by guitarists Lilas and Sherry, their creative partnership forms the group’s heart-and-soul — but now threatens to tear it apart. Set against the backdrop of political unrest, Sirens riffs eloquently on universal themes of love, friendship and following your true passion.

In this completely fresh take on the rock documentary, filmmaker Rita Baghdadi follows the group as they struggle to make it in a male-dominated society and music scene. Focusing her lens on Lilas and Sherry, the group’s talented and driven co-founders and guitarists, Baghdadi reveals a fertile creative partnership but also a complicated personal one. Facing both cultural headwinds and internal tensions, will the band break up? Will they make it? Shot during the aftermath of Beirut’s horrific 2020 port explosions and the civil unrest that followed, Sirens sings a powerful song, memorable because it manages to be both singular and universal. “Rita Baghdadi paints a portrait of music as a form of resistance while the world around its subjects wreaks devastation.” –Christopher Cross, Tilt Magazine

Director Biography

Rita Baghdadi was born in Washington, D.C., grew up between Maryland and Morocco, and is an acclaimed documentary filmmaker. She is the director of the documentary shorts Moms (2014), Not So Namaste (2014), Use of Force (2015), Saving the Bolsa Chica Wetlands (2016) and the feature documentary My Country No More (2018).

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