For a long time, a bloody war raged in Berlin’s underworld between two Arab immigrant families—the Yorks and the Lancasters. The conflict ends in victory for the York family. From that day on, Rashida sets her sights on becoming the king of the Yorks, engaging in a web of intrigue filled with slander, murder, and seduction. No Beast. So Fierce. is the latest work by Burhan Qurbani, a German director of Afghan origin who inherits the political sensibilities of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. In his previous film, Berlin Alexanderplatz (2020), Qurbani used Doblin’s novel of the same name to reflect contemporary society through the lens of 1920s Germany, a time when fascism began to take root. This time, he reimagines Shakespeare’s Richard III as a noir with an Arab female protagonist at its center. Actively working in both theater and film, Kenda Hmeidan gives a standout performance as the lead. In mise-en-scene reminiscent of Caravaggio’s paintings, the director doesn’t stop at depicting a blood-soaked power struggle led by a foreigner yearning for freedom. He goes further, boldly portraying how the immigrant becomes both “a wound the West wants to conceal” and a beast-like figure.
