AURORA PICTURE SHOW & HTX MADE PRESENTS

An Evening with

LEILA AND THE WOLVES

OCTOBER 7, 2025 - by SARAH ONTIVEROS

Leila and the Wolves (1984) by Heiny Srour

In the fading light on a warm Sunday, we approached Houston’s Aurora Picture Show at their new Second Ward location for a screening of the recently restored Leila and the Wolves (1984) by Lebanese filmmaker Heiny Srour, hosted in-part by HTX Made Presents. For the film’s first US release, and as a place for the avant-garde arts, Aurora felt like the perfect backdrop for a film like Leila and the Wolves. The film is based on true events but told through a surrealist lens, blending reality with fantasy and traversing time. It centers on the oppression of Arab women in Palestine and Lebanon during the British Mandate, while also highlighting those who dared to be revolutionary. 

To start off the evening we heard, “A National Identity”- a monologue from The Revolution’s Promise by Zoe Lafferty, presented by Houston’s Falasteen Arts Festival and Actors Across Borders. The Revolution’s Promise is a powerful collection of Palestinian testimonials that span years and both celebrate and spotlight cultural resistance during a time of violence and censorship.

Nour Alia, photo by Sarah Ontiveros

Actress Nour Alia delivered the monologue written by cultural activist Rania Elias, depicting the attacks on the Yabous Cultural Centre in Jerusalem and the aggression shown to her, her family, and other Palestinian staff members. Alia’s resonant delivery permits you to feel Elia’s palpable frustration but also her steadfast resilience. 

We were then transported by the music of Zaytounat (The Olives), a Houston-local band specializing in music from the MENA (Middle East & North Africa) region. The music accenting the cultural theme of the night and setting the tone for the film to follow. There’s something to be said of the power of music in allowing you to feel tied to a world outside of your own even if just for a moment. Zaytounat does this well - their music serving as a melodious primer to Leila and the Wolves. 

Zaytounat, photo by Sarah Ontiveros

The film follows Leila, a Lebanese woman in London in the 1980s who is at once prepping for a Palestinian-centered photography exhibit and traveling through the centuries on the words, songs, and recollections of Arab women. Arab women whom she realizes have been excluded from the cultural narrative of the exhibit. We watch her move through time like a ghost, clothed in white, spectral and omniscient. She listens to the cries and inner thoughts of Arab women in Palestine and Lebanon throughout time. We watch as they struggle under the regime of the British Mandate and at the hands of their husbands, violently oppressed on the streets as well as in their homes. We learn of their quiet schemes and revolutionary spirit in spite of their aggressors, and we bear witness to the risks and sacrifices they made in the name of resistance and liberation. The film closes with imagery of Arab women breaking free of their cultural restraints and it seems to serve as an underscore to Srour’s feminist ideologies while also advocating for them as well. 

Collectively, the audience members and organizers praised Srour’s unbridled and authentic filmmaking. Srour even intermingles archival footage within the film, with the evening’s DJ and panel participant, Jackson Allers (Ice House Radio) likening it to The Battle of Algiers (1966) - a film noted for its realistic depiction of revolutionary struggle and resistance against colonial powers. Similarly, Maryam Aasif of Actors Across Borders, claims the film gave her the sense that, “she was watching real-time videos on her phone,” emphasizing the fact that the violent climate of Palestine and beyond remains unchanged. This evaluation is no doubt what Heiny Srour intended for us as viewers, so that we may realize the longevity of such oppressions and what we must do as activists and artists to reveal and resist them. 

Camille Ashraf, Maryam Aasif, Jackson Allers, Riyad Bushnaq, Li Lu, photo by Sarah Ontiveros

In the warm quiet of the night, as we exit Aurora, we are reminded of our own liberty, of the growing scarcity of immigrant shelter, the dwindling rights of women within our cities, and we are charged with the realization that revolution and resistance are universal and not attributed to just one place and time. It is then to be concluded that Leila and the Wolves, Rania Elias’ monologue, and coded songs from the MENA region are more than just testaments or testimonials, they’re cautionary tales, and more importantly, calls to action. 

We’d like to thank HTX Made Presents, Aurora Picture Show, Falasteen Arts Festival, Actors Across Borders, Zaytounat, Ice House Radio, and other participating organizers and artists for an evening of community and conversation. 

To follow along with the organizations or to find ways to get involved, visit the links above. For further support for events such as this, you can make a tax deductible donation to HTX Made here.