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Beyond Honor, the debut feature from Writer/Director Varun Khanna, is a strikingly bold portrait of oppression and high tension in suburban America. It is the story of Sahira Abdel-Karim (Ruth Osuna), a young Egyptian-American woman raised in southern California. She is torn between two distinct worlds: one that is haunted by a harshly violent memory and tightly bound by tradition, the other that we hardly realize exists because we are so much a part of it - contemporary America with its promise of personal freedom for all. 

Beyond Honor is a heart-stopping, emotionally resonant portrayal of gender roles and the dynamics of power within a small, claustrophobic family.

Granted the gift of education by her father, Sahira is a medical student - beautiful, bold, and confident. She dreams of a different, more modern life shared with her friends and colleagues, including her unceasingly supportive boyfriend Brian (Jason David Smith). For this life to be any more opposed to that which she experiences at home is impossible. Dominated by her father Mohammed (Wadie Andrawis) and ruled by traditionally patriarchal Muslim values, the Abdel-Karim family lives in fear. Sahira’s mother, Noor (Laurel Melagrano), is an American woman who submits body and soul to her husband. Her brother, Samir (Ryan Izay), is the favored son whose own cultural conflict is expressed as fiercely guarded, repressed sexual desire. 

The family is bullied into following Mohammed’s every whim. Unspoken tensions escalate daily, and Sahira’s only escape from this pressure cooker is the world of school and friends. But even this haven is marked by her father’s intimidating presence. Things quickly change when Sahira becomes bolder and more daring, joining her friends for a night of personal freedom that introduces her to previously unknown experiences of sex and romance. Her father’s smoldering distrust of his daughter’s diverging lifestyle finally catches up with her, and she is punished for “dishonoring the family” in the most unthinkable manner. 

The horrific actions taken by the Abdel-Karim family are as inevitable as they are inconceivable to the outside world, which, like the viewer, is caught completely unaware by the explosive violence that could erupt when such mounting oppression goes unchecked, and from which none can truly recover. The entire family becomes complicit, their guilt inarguable. The very concept of “honor” becomes a battlefield, and sex now becomes an issue of power as Sahira fights to bring justice to those who have harmed her. The faults of the family, long hidden, become Sahira’s ultimate weapons of revenge and dishonor, leading to the film’s chilling conclusion. 

Produced by Harkeerat Dhillon & Varun Khanna and set to a powerful score by David Mann, Beyond Honor is a tense, compelling tale of love, violence, fear, embattled morality, and power in suburban America that hits dreadfully close to home in the largest, loudest way possible.

Varun Khanna – Director/Writer
With Beyond Honor, Varun Khanna makes his debut as feature film writer and director. Raised in Bombay, India, Khanna, after years as a teenage professional actor was one of the youngest professional stage director in the sub-continent at age 17 with his production of Peter Shaffer’s Equus. 

With a BS in Physics from St. Xavier’s College, an MA in scenic design from The University of Akron and an MFA in directing/acting from The Ohio State University, The Drama League of New York, in 1992 chose Khanna as one of three upcoming directors during a national US search. 

A classically trained actor, Khanna after directing in the mid-west and New York for several years ran a leading theatre company in Ohio till 1995. He then moved to Los Angeles in 1996 to write for television news magazine. After years of working in television at WPXN, KSCI, The International Channel, and KTSF as segment producer, producer, writer and editor, Khanna founded Millindius, Inc a technology company that was acquired in 2003. 

With roots deep in the theatre tradition, Khanna most enjoys working with actors through the medium of film. He is also a member of the Academy of Television, Arts & Sciences. A life-long ambition to create world-class cinema has been the compelling reason for this writer/director to stay committed to the art of story telling. A believer in technology and the digital age, Khanna is most influenced by the writings of stage director Peter Brook and film director Peter Weir and writers, Sam Shepard and Heiner Muller. Khanna has just completed his second feature as writer/director of American Blend starring Anupam Kher, Dee Wallace Stone, David Oyelowo, and Ranjit Chowdhry. 

Harkeerat Dhillon, Executive Producer
Harkeerat Dhillon is the Executive Producer of Beyond Honor and CEO/President of Cine02 Productions, LLC. A renowned orthopedic surgeon by profession with a life-long passion for the arts, cinema and filmmaking, Dhillon’s ability to bring communities and people together for various causes has been recognized in Southern California with his leadership in academia as well in his appointment as the Executive Director of the Riverside International Film Festival.