When I go to the Cannes Film Festival, I look for a lawyer-related movie to write about. Last year, I saw “Mayhem,” a horror film starring former “Walking Dead” actor, Steven Yeun, who fought his way out of a quarantined building after an anti-inhibitor virus had attacked the Big Law tenant causing everyone (from senior partner to mailroom clerk) to act out their wildest impulses. This year I saw a different type of horror film—one based on true events.

“Girls of the Sun” portrays a woman lawyer, Bahar, who shifted from the usual challenges of work-life balance to those of a veritable superhero. ISIS militants invaded her town in Kurdistan, rounded up and killed the men, captured then sold the women and girls as sex slaves and put the young boys into training “schools.” This story has been told through news reports about the all-female battalions (peshmerga or YPJ) who have fought in Iraq's Yazidi territory and across the border in Syria. But it takes on another dimension as a feature film—one of the few films selected for the official competition at Cannes.

The story is told by a French journalist (a Marie Colvin look-alike), and it is a real tear-jerker. After seeing her husband killed and her son abducted, Bahar is enslaved and sold four times before she escapes. She laments that it is even worse for the girls as young as 9 years old who are sought the most. After gaining her freedom, Bahar forms a military unit comprised entirely of former captives. These women look like other soldiers dressed in camouflage with one distinction that is prominent in the film as well as the news footage. They all wear scarves bounded by colorful floral designs or ornaments. They really are quite beautiful.

Bahar and her battalion pursue a daring strategy to retake her town by fighting through a mined tunnel. The visual and sound effects are worthy of any war movie. But again there is a distinction not found elsewhere—the women's voices. This is significant, as the jihadists believe that getting killed by a woman keeps them from entering paradise. Bahar and her troop know this, so they sing loudly going into battle. They sing a song that, when translated from Kurdish, tells of “a new era of women, life and liberty”!

Of course, it is not just the extremists who suffer in this campaign. Some of Bahar's soldiers die, too. And there is the sadness over lost husbands and children, but writer-director Eva Husson provides a Hollywood-style happy ending.

The female defeat of ISIS fighters makes an extraordinary story whether presented through news clips or this dramatic film. The movie stands out, however, because it not only has strong female leads, with Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani as Bahar, it also has Husson. She is one of only 82 female directors of the 1,727 directors who have walked the red carpet at Cannes—a point noted by the president of this year's Cannes jury, Cate Blanchett. Yes, it is time for change in the film industry and the world. And I cannot think of a better story for giving women a chance.

Laurie Webb Daniel chairs Holland & Knight's national appellate team and leads the firm's Atlanta litigation practice group.