In “Roman,” director Jessy Moussallem places the members of the all-male band Mashrou’ Leila firmly – and literally – in the background, as the women of the film move forwards together.

The song’s refrain: ‘Aleihum — “Charge!” is a call to arms, a cry for self-realization, as Mashrou’ Leila explains: a way of “treating oppression not as a source of victimhood, but as the fertile ground from which resistance can be weaponized.”