Who gets to decide who inherits what? And why do two daughters have fewer rights than their brother living on the other side of the world? In Thank You for Banking with Us by Laila Abbas, estranged sisters Noura and Mariam don’t have much time to reflect on these questions – they have just one night to outsmart the system.
When their father suddenly passes away, there’s no time to mourn. Instead, the sisters hatch a plan: they’ll keep his death a secret until morning so they can quickly withdraw money from his bank account. Under current inheritance laws, everything would otherwise go to their brother in America.
Abbas uses this seemingly simple premise to expose the invisible walls Palestinian women face – not just in navigating bureaucracy, but also in their interactions with family. At times, the film feels like a Palestinian take on Thelma & Louise – minus the car chase, and with a lot more paperwork.
Thank You for Banking with Us isn’t a film that hammers home a moral message. Instead, Abbas quietly shows how commonplace and relatable this struggle is – not only for women in the Middle East, but around the world.
Its strength lies in its subtlety: in how social pressure operates, how legal systems systematically disadvantage women, and how two people who can barely stand each other end up being each other’s anchor.
Abbas has crafted a film that is both funny and heartbreaking – a story of sisterhood and resilience that feels universal, even though it’s grounded in a highly specific setting.
What seems like a simple task – cashing a check – quickly becomes a bureaucratic nightmare. Women need a man’s signature, and the men they encounter are anything but helpful.
