In 2019, Lebanon’s financial crisis reached its breaking point. Protests across the country intensified, banks closed their doors, and soon began imposing restrictions on depositors’ withdrawals and transfers. Three years later, the collapse was total: money was frozen in bank accounts, people could no longer access their savings, and many citizens took desperate measures to get their money back. It is precisely in that bleak year of 2022 that Furies, directed by Rami Kodeih, is a work of fiction that comes painfully close to reality.

Dalia (Maria Nakouzi) is facing a serious health condition and needs money to begin a treatment that could save her life. Her older sister, Maro (Rym Mroueh), does everything in her power to convince the manager of the bank where they have their savings to release the funds needed to cover Dalia’s treatment. Faced with the bank’s constant obstacles and consumed by desperation, Maro makes a drastic decision: rob the bank.

The screenplay by Rami Kodeih and Nora Mariana follows the conventions of the heist thriller: first comes the motivation, then the target is studied, the plan is developed, and finally the execution begins. The first two acts establish the characters and their unusual plan, while the third draws us into the robbery itself and the consequences it brings for the protagonists. Furies is anchored in the idea of a justified robbery: Maro and Dalia simply want to recover their own money to pay for Dalia’s medical procedure. That premise is rooted in the personal experience of Nora Mariana and Rami Kodeih.

Furies stands out for its excellent narrative pace. From the very beginning, the tension steadily builds, creating the sensation of watching a volcano on the verge of eruption. The construction of the heist recalls classics such as Rififi (1955) and The Killing (1956), more on a conceptual level than in terms of direct stylistic imitation. Anticipation, attention to detail, the volatility of those involved, and the element of chance are recurring elements of this type of film, and here they are handled with remarkable precision.

The film also draws from Thelma & Louise (1991). Kodeih transfers the energy of its two strong female protagonists from the road movie into the heist movie. There is a growing sense of reaching a point of no return, women operating outside the law, and men and institutions standing in their way. All of this makes Maro and Dalia feel like a kind of reincarnation of Ridley Scott’s iconic heroines.

Furies works both as a heist thriller and as a powerful social critique. Every obstacle Maro and Dalia encounter represents the pain of an entire nation. It is a film with formidable cinematography, sharp editing, and sustained tension. This is genre filmmaking of a very high caliber.