‘No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman’ Venice Review: A One-Woman Mission Through the Ruins of Mosul

There are a few things that set this action thriller, centered on a sniper in war-torn Mosul, Iraq, apart from the average Hollywood combat movie. First, its protagonist is a woman. Second, she’s Kurdish, fighting ISIS while trying to rescue her sister, who was kidnapped by the terrorist group. Beyond those distinctions, however, No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman largely embraces the conventions of mainstream war cinema, relying on long stretches of silence, patient build-ups, covert missions, and the constant sense that its heroine could be exposed at any moment.

The story unfolds across two timelines. In the first, set in 2014, Vyan (Avan Jamal), a Kurdish woman living in Norway, returns to her homeland with her family for a visit. While they’re there, ISIS launches an attack that leaves her parents dead and both sisters captured and sold into slavery. Vyan manages a miraculous escape from her captor but loses track of her sister. She eventually joins the women’s branch of the Peshmerga, the Kurdish fighting force, where she learns to handle weapons, becomes a deadly sniper, and dedicates herself to finding her missing sibling.

After a forced return to Norway, Vyan decides to go back to Iraq once again when she learns her sister may still be alive, living under the control of a man known as «the Swedish Sniper.» From that point on, the film takes on the feel of a tense video game, as its Kurdish heroine makes her way through hostile territory in search of her sister, rescuing civilians and dispatching countless enemies along the way. In that respect, Mustafa’s film doesn’t stray very far from familiar international action formulas, turning Vyan into a one-woman army capable of taking on dozens of armed men.

Jamal gives Vyan a fierce, convincing performance, anchoring the film even as it pushes into increasingly larger-than-life territory. She moves through the ruins of Mosul—where parts of the film were shot—crossing what remains of a city almost completely destroyed during the war. The title refers to a crucial aspect of the conflict: for ISIS fighters, being killed by a woman is considered the ultimate humiliation. So much so that a substantial bounty is placed on her head.

More than anything, No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman is surprising because it reveals the craftsmanship that The Classic director Mustafa brings to action filmmaking. It’s easy to imagine him moving into larger-scale international genre productions —or streaming-platform action movies— without fundamentally changing his approach. The film’s greatest strength lies in his confidence as a visual storyteller, particularly during extended dialogue-free sequences built around long takes and long-range sniper confrontations, where tension depends almost entirely on cinematic precision: knowing where to look, when to fire, and how to listen for danger lurking just out of sight.

«For me, this film is a portrait of Kurdish women who, for generations, have fought for their dignity, their freedom, and their right to exist,» the director has said, describing the project as a tribute to their resilience and courage. That perspective is undeniably central to the story. But if one steps back from the specific political and historical context and focuses on the mechanics of the filmmaking itself, No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman often feels like a calling card aimed at Hollywood. Mustafa clearly has the natural talent to get there.