corktown common
Thursday, July 17, 2025

speed sisters

With the short films Mawtini (My Homeland) and Unibrow

Lebanese-Canadian Director Amber Fares’ first feature length documentary Speed Sisters gives audiences an under-the-hood look at the first all-women car racing team in Palestine. At the centre of this year’s Spotlight on SWANA Stories programme, the film highlights four subjects, Marah, Noor, Mona and Betty, who represent Palestine on the track with national pride and a deep passion for driving. Fares (who is being celebrated on the festival circuit this year for her recent documentary feature Coexistence, My Ass!) uses an empathetic camera to show the growing pains these young women face outside of racing, as they find balance between home life, work and play in the face of the barriers imposed by occupation and disenfranchisement. Ultimately it is their ability to persevere and the joy driving cars competitively provides that keeps them on track to pursue their goals no matter the roadblocks, as they weave racing into the fabric of their lives a quarter kilometre at a time.

Paired with Speed Sisters are two shorts that emphasize the importance of sisterhood spanning all ages and women growing through shared experiences. In Unibrow, Iranian-Canadian Toronto-based filmmaker Nedda Sarshar tells the story of Leyla, a young girl feeling shame around her Iranian heritage after facing bullying at school for having eyebrows that meet above her nose. She is pleasantly surprised when she forms a friendship with new Iranian student Sahar who helps her learn to love where she comes from and, ultimately, herself. Further exploring coming-of-age through friendships forged at different points in life, local filmmaker Fateema Al-Hamaydeh Miller’s Mawtini (My Homeland), who TOPS audiences will remember from her short EITR in last year’s programme,also highlights the power of an unexpected friendship.Nawal, a young Palestinian woman, and Tayna, an older Indigenous woman, live in the same apartment building, and meet in the building’s courtyard. When they start a guerilla garden, the pair heal together through their collaborative act of rebellion as they push back against management and witness the fruits of their labour.