NO PARADISE IF YOU ARE KILLED BY A WOMAN Teaser Sends a Female Sniper Back Into the Horrors of War

War has taught Vyan how to survive by shutting off the parts of herself that hurt. But when the Kurdish sniper discovers that the sister she thought was lost during ISIS’ 2014 attack may actually be alive, survival suddenly isn’t enough.

The first teaser for No Paradise if You Are Killed by a Woman introduces an intense new war drama from acclaimed Norwegian-Kurdish filmmaker Halkawt Mustafa, who was born in Iraq.

The film is set to make its world premiere at the 2026 Venice Film Festival in the main Out of Competition section, bringing Vyan’s brutal and deeply personal journey to the festival this fall.

Avan Jamal stars as Vyan, a Kurdish female sniper who has spent years burying her emotions to endure the horrors of war. When information surfaces suggesting that her younger sister survived the ISIS assault and could still be somewhere in Mosul, Vyan heads back into the devastated city to find her.

The mission drags her directly into a past she has spent years trying to lock away. Mosul isn’t simply a dangerous place she has to navigate. Returning means facing the violence she survived, the trauma she refused to process, and the person she had to become in order to keep going.

The official synopsis reads: “Vyan (Avan Jamal), a Kurdish female sniper, has survived war by shutting down her emotions. When she learns her younger sister, believed lost during ISIS’ 2014 assault, may still be alive in Mosul, she returns to a city shaped by death and destruction. Her search becomes both a rescue mission and a confrontation with the trauma she has spent years trying to silence.”

Mustafa drew inspiration for No Paradise if You Are Killed by a Woman from real women he has encountered, as well as the courage of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights activist Nadia Murad. Murad was abducted by ISIS in Iraq in 2014 and survived captivity before becoming an international advocate for survivors and the Yazidi community.

That real-world foundation gives the film some heavy territory to explore. Vyan’s story may be fictional, but it comes from a chapter of recent history filled with very real brutality, loss, survival, and women who were forced to endure unimaginable circumstances.

Jamal is joined in the cast by Thorbjørn Harr, who plays Anders, along with Kanar Sarchl and Kader Jalal.

Mustafa wrote and directed the film after previously directing Red Heart, The Classic, and Hiding Saddam Hussein. He also serves as a producer alongside Janne Hjeltnes and John M. Jacobsen.

The teaser makes No Paradise if You Are Killed by a Woman look like a rough, emotionally punishing war film rather than a conventional sniper thriller. The rescue mission gives Vyan a reason to return to Mosul, but the bigger fight appears to be with everything she has carried away from it.

That could make for one hell of an intense watch. No Paradise if You Are Killed by a Woman will premiere in the Out of Competition section of the 2026 Venice Film Festival. No additional theatrical or streaming release dates have been announced yet.