Review: 'Huda's Salon' is an uneven, but still absorbing thriller about an occupation, from both sides of the divide

The Palestinian-made thriller “Huda’s Salon” has perhaps the most nail-biting first 10 minutes in a movie recently — and follows that with a plot that can’t keep pace with that opening.

When we meet Huda (Manal Awad), she’s hard at work at her hair salon in Bethlehem, in what writer-director Hany Abu-Assad identifies as “occupied Palestine.” Huda is washing the hair of her customer, Reem (Maisa And Elhadi), and chatting while Reem’s baby coos in a nearby carrier. Then Huda slips a drug into Reem’s drink — and when she passes out, Huda moves Reem into a back room, strips her naked, and takes Polaroids of her with a naked man.

When Reem wakes up, Huda reveals that she works for the occupying country’s secret service. (The word “Israel” is never uttered in Abu-Assad’s script, but everyone can read the between the lines.) Huda shows Reem the Polaroids, which she uses to blackmail Reem into becoming an informant, passing along information of the Palestinian resistance. Reem refuses to cooperate, and leaves the salon with her baby.

Once Reem gets home, she’s not sure what to do. Her husband, Yousef (Jalal Masarwa), already doubts her fidelity, and she’s sure he won’t believe her if she tells him the truth. And she’s terrified that the Polaroid will fall into his hands.

While Reem stews over her dilemma, Huda gets kidnapped by resistance fighters. The resistance leader, Hasan (Ali Suliman), interrogates Huda in a dark room — and a cat-and-mouse game develops between them, with each justifying their actions in the never-ending guerrilla war between occupier and occupied.

Abu-Assad — who’s recent films range from the Palestinian drama “Omar” to the American survival drama “The Mountains Between Us” with Kate Winslet and Idris Elba — bounces between Hasan’s interrogation sessions with Huda and Reem’s increasingly frantic efforts to evade Hasan’s men and retrieve that photo. The script structure is too confining, never allowing either part of the story to fully develop. But the main performances, by Awad and Elhadi as women trapped in opposite ends of a repressive system, and that dynamite opening are enough to keep audiences invested.

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‘Huda’s Salon’

★★★

Opens Friday, March 4, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City) and Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy). Rated R for disturbing violent content and graphic nudity. Running time: 91 minutes; in Arabic, with subtitles.