How Long Is “Beyond Honor”?

Traditional Muslim values clash with suburban American sensibility in writer/director Varun Khanna's harrowing exploration of a woman wedged between two rival belief systems. Egyptian-American medical student Sahira Abdel-Karim (Ruth Osuna) is a beautiful young woman with a bright future on the horizon. In the outside world, Sahira is blessed with a devoted group of friends and an unwaveringly supportive boyfriend who is always there for her, but a look at Sahira's increasingly tense home life tells another story entirely. Her intimidating father, Mohammed (Wadie Andrawis), is a traditional Muslim whose patriarchal views find him dominating the outwardly confident student, her American mother, Noor (Laurel Melegrano), and her unquestioning brother, Samir (Ryan Izay), with an iron fist, and he resents his daughter's increasingly westernized values and isn't afraid to voice his disapproval with frightening intensity. When Mohammed discovers that his newly empowered daughter has flouted their religious values by experimenting with sex, the brutal punishment he unleashes upon her for dishonoring his family finds years of resentment unleashed in one unthinkable act.