In the late 1960s, Dhofar rose up against the British-backed Sultanate of Oman, in a democratic, anti-imperialist guerrilla movement. Director Heiny Srour and her team crossed 500 miles of desert and mountains by foot, under bombardment by the British Royal Air Force, to reach the conflict zone and capture this rare record of a now mostly-forgotten war.

Refusing colonial and masculine readings of the past, Leila, a Lebanese student, travels through time and space, reflecting on 80 years of Middle Eastern history. From the British Mandate to the Lebanese Civil War, she reveals the hidden role of women, and discovers that the Patriarchy also oppresses men. Shot over seven years, and in often treacherous conditions, Heiny Srour’s film is a masterpiece of filmmaking, mixing together archival footage, fairy-tale storytelling, aesthetically bold imagery, and dramatizations of situations faced by women in Lebanon and Palestine.