Speed Sisters
Lively doc following five female drag racers in Palestine.
This lively doc follows five Palestinian women as they vie to be crowned the fastest broad on the West Bank. By either luck or design, each has a very distinct style and attitude, as if they’ve been cooked up by Simon Cowell to be the region's answer to the Spice Girls.
What makes Speed Sisters such a joy is that it's both political and playful; social commentary unspools quietly in the background while the focus is the on- and off-track dramas. The tear gas in the streets, roadblocks and lack of any space for them to drive have become daily inconveniences, so commonplace they’ve become humdrum. Palestine still has the power to shock them, however.
When the women venture on to a strip of waste ground too close to the border, an Israeli soldier shoots Betty, the most glamourous of the racers, with rubber bullets without warning. “Did you think because you’re blonde and pretty they wouldn't shoot at you?” asks Maysoon, the most switched-on of the girls. The film may be light but it’s never lightweight.
Speed Sisters screens in Glasgow Film Festival: 24 Feb, GFT, 1.15pm
Read more about Glasgow Film Festival in The CineSkinny – in print at Glasgow Film Festival venues and online at theskinny.co.uk/film/cineskinny
The CineSkinny is brought to you by MUBI, the online cinema bringing you hand-picked film gems every day.