서울국제여성영화제

Amid the devastation of conflict, The Station captures the resilience of women sustaining their lives and the horrors concealed beneath it. Layal, who runs a women-only petrol station, reunites with her long-estranged sister when her twelve-year-old brother faces the threat of being recruited as a child soldier. Their relationship is put to the test as they encounter a series of unexpected challenges.

At Layal’s petrol station, where the rules are “no men, no weapons, no politics,” women take off their niqabs and hijabs, freely enjoy qat and shisha, sing, and savor the small pleasures of everyday life. Here, they can obtain everything from jewelry to banned contraceptives, making the station seem like a haven for women within an oppressive world dominated by religious fundamentalism and patriarchal violence. Yet it also reflects a brutal reality: as men disappear to the battlefields, women are left behind to keep society running.

The two warring factions in the film, the Sanadid and the Maghawir, indirectly reflect the realities of Yemen’s civil war, now stretching beyond a decade, while also serving to broaden the conflict beyond its specific historical context. Premiered at the 2026 Cannes Critics’ Week, The Station was praised as “a film peopled with women and boys who go beyond simple archetypes, setting joyful female solidarity against omnipresent conflict.” Should one remain within the safety of a neutral space, or actively intervene and take action? Through the sisters’ contrasting approaches to war, the film reveals the deep-rooted divisions and contradictions of a prolonged civil conflict.