52 Films by Women Vol 10. 24. ONLY REBELS WIN (Seuls les Rebelles) (Director: Danielle Arbid)

 

Pictured: Migrant construction worker Osmane (Amine Benrachid) reaches out to a sexagenarian Palestinian widower, Suzanne (Hiam Abbass) in a scene from writer-director Danielle Arbid's Lebanon-set romance, 'Only Rebels Win'. Still courtesy of Easy Riders Films.  

At the start of her sixth feature film, Seuls les Rebelles (Only Rebels Win), Lebanese expatriate writer-director, Danielle Arbid (born in Beirut in 1970), offers an apology. In spite of best intentions, she was unable to film in Lebanon as Israeli attacks, which continue at time of writing, prevented her from doing so. Instead, using Zoom to communicate, she directed a small team to take digital footage of the locations in her script. She then shot her movie in a studio and used the footage as back projection. Arbid did not want to offend her Lebanese audience by pretending that she endured their privations. She ends the film with a pan to the crew, an acknowledgement of her artifice. My first response as a western viewer was to find these devices superfluous. The viewer loses themselves in the story. For Arbid, this acknowledgement is more than just an apology. It is a statement of the fragility of the country. Lebanon has a social and cultural identity that should be respected rather than bombed out of existence. Yes, that cultural identity is forged by patriarchal norms. Men are in charge. Women are socially conditioned. Yet compassion oozes through the cracks.

Arbid’s previous film, Simple Passion, an adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s 77-page novella about a young French woman’s affair with a Russian diplomat, had its cinema release outside France curtailed by Covid. Only Rebels Win is less sexually explicit, although it deals with a ‘shocking’ affair between a sexagenarian Palestinian woman, Suzanne (Hiam Abbass) and migrant construction worker Osmane (Amine Benrachid), a South Sudanese man in his early twenties, who she helps after he is attacked by his employers. The film is nominally inspired by Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Fear Eats The Soul, as well as the films that came before and after it, All That Heaven Allows directed by Douglas Sirk and Far From Heaven, written and directed by Todd Haynes. All three films feature an age gap between the lovers; the Fassbinder and Sirk films present the lovers as being of different ethnicity. Clio Barnard’s film Ali & Ava also drew on Fassbinder’s take.

After a montage of skylines, we are shown the nighttime attack, a scuffle that turns deadly when a knife is used. Arbid keeps the camera close and lowers the sound so that the sequence is almost abstract. She uses a jump cut to show Suzanne’s intervention, pulling at one of the men. She takes Osmane back to her apartment and bandages his arm which had been slashed. Osmane tells her that the men owed him 500 dollars and have his passport. He now has no sponsor. He refuses to report the assault to the police. ‘The police are useless,’ Suzanne agrees. After his arm is dressed, Osmane asks, ‘could you clean my hand?’

Suzanne offers him food, explaining that she cooks with too many onions in order to cry by herself. She married a Lebanese man who served in the military and later died. In a clunky piece of exposition, rather than open up a photograph album, Suzanne shows Osmane her husband’s pistol. ‘It doesn’t work,’ she explains, adding that she keeps it to frighten off robbers. Osmane holds the weapon. Suzanne compliments his look. Then she asks for the firearm back. We know that it will feature later in the drama. For plot purposes, we intuit why Arbid didn’t show Osmane searching through Suzanne’s possessions and discovering it, lest that make him unsympathetic.

Osmane has no intention of remaining in Lebanon. He visits a café where a people smuggler offers his services for three thousand dollars, including the provision of false papers. ‘Are you sure you can get them?’ one enquirer asks. ‘Are you calling me a liar?’ the smuggler responds. Osmane tells the café owner about his assault. He needs a job and is sent to a gambling din, where the manager sits behind a desk with a box of gambling chips on it. To his right is a television set that shows the news. In the early part of the film, we see TV reports of attacks that are illustrated by security camera footage. No sport. ‘Can you empty bins, clean the toilet, look smart?’ the manager asks Osmane. ‘Of course,’ Osmane replies. ‘This is a classy place,’ the manager adds, though we don’t see any evidence.

Osmane gives Suzanne some nectarines to express his gratitude. He compliments her on her appearance. Suzanne puts on some music. A French song plays. Osmane asks Suzanne to dance. At first he dances on his own, his right arm bent at a right angle as if in a sling. Then Suzanne dances next to him, laughing, smiling, moving her arms as if swimming, a puppy paddle. Eventually, they hold each other.

Arbid doesn’t show us Osmane’s apartment. Instead, we see Suzanne in her workplace. She sells fabric, her late husband’s pension having ceased a long time ago. She doesn’t immediately tell her colleagues about Osmane, though they learn about him later. However, a neighbour sees Osmane and Suzanne by the elevator. She complains about the lack of water and gas. Does Suzanne have these amenities? Suzanne assures her she does. The neighbour doesn’t vocalise her disapproval, but later the police turn up at Suzanne’s apartment. The neighbour complains that Osmane is a thief. The police dismiss the neighbour as wasting their time. Suzanne encourages Osmane to keep quiet.

The relationship between Osmane and Suzanne is portrayed tenderly. They hug and lie together but don’t kiss. Arbid doesn’t want to exploit Benrachid, the less well-known actor, or make him feel uncomfortable. This is a film in which love is portrayed as a raw feeling rather than the by-product of desire.

It remains for Suzanne’s children to express their disapproval. Suzanne’s daughter, Sana (Shaden Fakih) visits with Suzanne’s grandchild, Jessy, and complains about her husband, whom she says is cheating on her. As she speaks, Suzanne attends to the child, almost as if her daughter’s tirade was the norm. The daughter notices. Eventually she learns about Osmane and accuses her mother of disrespecting her uncle, Suzanne’s brother, who is in hospital having attempted to immolate himself. Suzanne’s son is equally harsh.

In a subplot, Layal (Alexandre Paulikevitch), a transvestite approaches Osmane and suggests that he robs his employer. The manager had wronged Layal sometime in the past – at least that’s what Osmane is told – and would happily help. Osmane listens to Layal rather than expresses an interest in Layal’s plan, though this is exactly where the plot takes us.

Before then, Suzanne approaches priests of all denominations to gain approval to marry Osmane. The kindest priest wishes her well, but none will conduct the ceremony. Suzanne cannot legitimise the relationship, but she doesn’t want to live in sin either.

Osmane becomes steadily less happy, breaking his rule and allowing himself to take a drink while at work; he is asked to sit next to a customer for good luck. He returns to Suzanne and throws up. However, he doesn’t stop drinking.

There is an odd scene in which Suzanne serves a customer who is critical of the lace she is being shown. It appears to be ‘less white’ than a product she had seen before. Suzanne shows her the lace on two different fabrics. The customer remains unconvinced. Then the customer asks to see some red silk, before dismissing it as polyester. ‘Look, it creases,’ she complains.  Two women, Lamia (Cynthia El Khazen) and Arsinee (Paula Sehnaoui), look on without saying a word.

Pictured: Palestinian widower Suzanne (Hiam Abbass, left) contemplates her life in a scene from writer-director Danielle Arbid's Lebanese-set drama, 'Only Rebels Win'. Still courtesy of Easy Riders Films

Sana and Jessy move in with Suzanne. Sana’s husband, Toni (Ziad Jallad) appears and demands that Sana returns home. He insults Osmane. Suzanne stays with Osmane in the next room, ensuring that he doesn’t complicate matters. Osmane resents being silenced.

It is no spoiler to say that the relationship doesn’t survive. The film is true to Arbid’s inspiration (the films of Sirk, Fassbinder, Haynes et al). We see Osmane walk past some lorries, having played his part in Layal’s plan. He intends to head for Europe via Turkey.

Does Osmane’s employer deserve to be robbed? Arbid suggests that he is involved in criminal activity.  Suzanne meets the building manager by the elevator doors. He says that he approves of Osmane. Suzanne’s relationship with him is a gesture of hope. He also says that he will put a water tank on each floor, thereby – the film infers - reducing conflict between neighbours. This is no small thing, and possibly outside of the manager’s resources.

Pictured: Suzanne (Hiam Abbass) and her daughter Sana (Shaden Fakih) in a scene from writer-director Danielle Arbid's Lebanon-set drama, 'Only Rebels Win'. Still courtesy of Easy Riders Films.

There are two scenes of a young woman who sings to Suzanne. In the first scene, this is at a meal that is a community blessing of sorts of Suzanne’s relationship. In the second scene, it is after Suzanne goes to a café to look for Osmane. Both scenes pay tribute to Lebanese culture and demonstrate the solidarity that exists between women regardless of age.

Suzanne is not heartbroken. Thanks to Osmane, she says she rediscovered her rage. This is an odd statement. How could one not be outraged in the face of Israeli bombing? We interpret the sentiment as Suzanne rediscovering life in old age. In the final scene, having heard from Osmane, Suzanne looks out over the sea, Arbid revealing the studio.

Reviewed at SXSW London, Curzon Hoxton Screen One, East London, Wednesday 3 June 2026, 18:20 screening