‘No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman’ Review: Iraq’s Oscar Submission Offers a Patriotic Anthem to the Kurdish Peshmerga’s Fight Against Islamic State

The trope of the lone action hero with near-superhuman strength gets a gender switch in “No Paradise If You Are Killed By A Woman,” a visually impressive drama about a resourceful female Peshmerga sniper. Although selected as Iraq’s submission for the Best International Feature Oscar, the third fiction feature from Norwegian-Kurdish helmer Halkawt Mustafa (“Red Heart,” “El Clásico”) may fall between two stools for Western viewers: There’s not enough action for genre fans and the narrative’s blend of melodrama and earnestness may turn off highbrow arthouse viewers. But it’s a different story in MENA territories where Sony/Empire has already nabbed distribution rights. Regional and Kurdish diaspora audiences should appreciate the strong visual and technical craftmanship used in this harrowing tale.

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The narrative centers on Vyan (striking London-based Kurdish thesp Avan Jamal, impressive), a 24-year-old Kurdish émigré to Norway who is visiting Iraqi Kurdistan with her parents and younger sister Helin in 2014, when Islamic State (IS) launches an attack. Their parents are murdered and Vyan and Helin are sold as IS sex slaves. Ever resilient, Vyan manages to kill the man who bought her and make her way to Peshmerga territory. There, she joins an elite unit of female fighters as a sniper.

As Vyan’s poetic voiceover narration states, Peshmerga means “before death” and its fighters enter combat out of strength, not out of fear. Certainly, Vyan is fearless. She reckons that she has killed more than 100 of the enemy in three years. Given that, as the title notes, IS fighters believe that there is “No Paradise If You Are Killed by A Woman,” it’s no wonder they have placed a million-dollar bounty on her head.

After heroically preventing an IS suicide truck bomber in an armored vehicle from attacking her unit’s base, the heavily wounded Vyan returns to Norway to recover. There, a government official (Thorbjørn Harr) offers her a difficult choice: accept a new identity and government protection (they fear the fact that she is an IS target could endanger other Norwegian citizens) or be prosecuted for fighting for another country. Luckily, Norwegian civilians don’t have to worry. A phone call to the family’s old landline confirms that Helin remains trapped in Mosul, in the clutches of an IS fighter known as the Swedish sniper. Loyal Vyan prepares for what may be her final mission: to singlehandedly rescue her sister.

The last half of the film feels as if it could easily be adapted into a tense video game as it follows Vyan silently creeping through tunnels and crawling through the aftermath of IS carnage. It certainly gives a more detailed picture of how a sniper operates, and the lonely patience required for the job, than Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” ever did. Vyan uses logic and the help of friendly Kurdish commander from the Iraqi government forces in Mosul to locate the IS snipers preventing civilians from leaving the devastated city.

Research for multi-hyphenate Mustafa’s 2015 TV project “The Women ISIS Fears” and his time as a war photographer seeing strong female fighters inspired “No Paradise,” which he dedicates to his daughters. Like the helmer’s previous features, it proudly incorporates Kurdish customs and traditions, from the “singing” that Vyan’s rifle performs to the traditional tunes sung by her Peshmerga captain and the Kurdish commander in Mosul.

Highlights of a polished technical package include the prowling camerawork of Norwegian DP John Erling H. Fredriksen and the film’s use of actual Mosul locations. The shocking ruins of what was once a thriving population center attest to a brutal military campaign to liberate the ancient city from IS. Also worthy of special mention in a film where the main character spends much of her time in silence is the tension-building sound design by Mattias Eklund and Jan Kasskawo.