[Edaily Starin Choi Hee-jae Reporter] The 28th Seoul International Women’s Film Festival (SWIFF) has selected *The Station*, which was invited to compete in the Critics’ Week section at the Cannes Film Festival, as its opening film.

The 28th Seoul International Women’s Film Festival, which opens on the 20th of next month, has selected “The Station,” the debut feature film by director Sara Ishaq, as its opening film and released the official trailer “FLICKER,” directed by Kim Mi-jo.
The opening film, which kicks off the festival, and the official trailer—shown to audiences before each screening during the festival—both interpret this year’s slogan, “Reimagining F,” which views instability and failure as starting points for new possibilities, through their own distinct visual languages.
“The Station” (original title: Al Mahattah) tells the story of Rayal, who runs a women-only gas station in a village in Yemen as the civil war intensifies, and the women who frequent the station. The film had its world premiere at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week competition.
The gas station run by Rayal has three rules: “No men, no weapons, no politics.” However, when her older sister returns from the battlefield harboring a secret, and even her 12-year-old brother faces the threat of being forcibly conscripted as a child soldier, external violence begins to threaten the station’s boundaries. Raya, her older sister, and the women at the gas station devise a dangerous yet ingenious plan to save her younger brother.
Rather than portraying women in war as passive victims, the film presents them as active agents who make decisions and take action to protect their living space and save one another. It captures the process by which women with different perspectives and circumstances confront a shared crisis—even amid conflict—with a perspective that never loses its sense of humor and vitality.
“The Station” was inspired by a women-only gas station that actually existed in the capital city of Sana’a during the Yemeni Civil War. Director Sara Ishaq initially intended to document this space in a documentary, but switched to a feature film out of concern for the safety of the women participating in the shoot. The film was completed after approximately ten years of development and received the Venice Biennale Award at the “Final Cut in Venice” industry program during the 2025 Venice Film Festival.
Programmer Song Hyo-jeong explained the reason for selecting it as the opening film: “This film captures the vitality and humor of a community of women who make decisions, take action, and save one another even amid a grim reality. It resonates with this year’s slogan, ‘Imagine F,’ which explores discovering new possibilities amidst uncertainty and failure, which is why we selected it as the opening film.”
Sarah Ishaq is a Yemeni-Scottish director, screenwriter, and film educator. She gained international attention in 2011 when her short documentary *There Are No Walls in Karama*, which chronicled the Yemeni Revolution, was nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject at the 86th Academy Awards.

This year’s official trailer, “Flicker,” was directed by Kim Mi-jo, who has a long-standing relationship with the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival, and features actress Lee Yeon of “Siufsta,” this year’s festival ambassador. In this trailer, Director Kim Mi-jo, together with actress Lee Yeon, interpreted this year’s slogan, “Imagine F,” through the imagery and movement of “Flicker.”
Director Kim Mi-jo explained her creative intent, stating, “The flickering image that heralded the birth of cinema was the very first image to begin moving not with smoothness, but with a tremor.” She added, “Through ‘Flicker,’ I sought to depict unretouched faces and uncontrolled emotions that stand up to an era demanding perfection, as well as humanity’s counterattack to defend the freedom to fail and the vitality that ultimately refuses to fade.”
While *Station* depicts the space and solidarity that women preserved amid the violence of war, *Flicker* confronts a system that judges human uncertainty and emotions as errors. These two films, which open the festival’s inaugural screening and the first moment of every subsequent screening, offer audiences the courage to embrace uncertainty and the new possibilities that emerge from it.
Launched in 1997, the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival has expanded diversity in the Korean film industry by discovering and supporting female filmmakers and introducing a wide range of films that capture women’s lives and perspectives. This year, the festival once again provides a space where audiences can encounter new voices through films depicting diverse lives and worlds, imagine one another’s experiences, and build solidarity.
The 28th Seoul International Women’s Film Festival will be held for a total of seven days, from the 20th to the 26th of next month, at Megabox Sinchon and the Korean Film Archive.