‘Brides’ Review: Innocence is Lost as Two Girls Fall Prey to Extremism in Nadia Hall’s Empathetic Story [B] – Sundance Film Festival

Alejandra Martinez January 31, 2025

When you don’t feel accepted or understood at home or in the world outside of it, where can you go? In Brides, two teenage girls decide to leave their homes in the U.K. for the false promise of a better life offered by a Muslim extremist group online. Nadia Hall, a playwright and theater director, makes her feature film directorial debut with this empathetic, harrowing, and complex story. Hall guides us alongside Ferdosa (Ebada Hassan) and Muna (Safiyya Ingar) through montages and time jumps as they make their way to Syria. Brides is less interested in the shock value of its subject material and more concerned with the wounded girls at its core.

The way Ferdosa, also known affectionately as “Doe,” and Muna traipse through Heathrow Airport at the beginning of the film is effervescent. Flitting around the airport shops, playing “Snog, Marry, Avoid” over cheeseburgers and milkshakes, they could be any set of best friends on their way to a pleasant vacation. However, that’s not the case here. In voiceover, we hear instructions from the person who’s guiding their journey into extremism: “Don’t call your parents until you reach the border, no matter how much it breaks your heart,” the disembodied voice urges. “Your new life awaits.” The words float over images of the girls boarding their plane, like the power of them is pushing them forward. During their journey through Turkey, the girls will encounter a host of people who offer them kindness. For instance, there is the single father who gives them a ride to a bus stop, and shares a day at the park and a meal with them along the way. These small acts of kindness as well as the scale of their journey add to the tension of the film: will they go through with their ultimate plan, or have a moment of realization and turn back?

Brides is largely anchored through the perspective of Ferdosa, whose flashbacks and memories are the key to understanding the girls’ motives. They offer glimpses into Ferdosa’s troubled home life, her bullying at school, and even a tender romance she’s started with a boy back home named Samir (Ali Khan). This can be enlightening and engaging, but contributes to Muna’s flatness as a character. There are moments where we see what Muna’s going through at home as well, but from Ferdosa’s perspective. It’s a narrative choice that can hinder the film’s power. Similarly, the use of montage and time jumps is effective for a time, until the film decides to overuse them.

The performances that are central to the film are a saving grace, however. Hassan, a first time actor, handles the inner struggle Doe is having wonderfully. After Doe has had her bag stolen in Turkey, the girls contemplate next steps. As they sit at a hilltop in the city, there is a near moment of reckoning with the reality of their situation. We can see the tension between Doe’s very real fears about the trip dance across her face, then resolve with a new determination when Muna calls her out on wanting to quit. Ingar is a great foil to Hassan’s inner struggles, bringing a bold, outspoken nature to Muna that hides her deeply felt pain. As the two wonder if anyone will come looking for them, Muna says plainly, “Who’s gonna give a shit about two brown girls?”

The script, by Suhayla El-Bushra, a fellow playwright and screenwriter, is deeply touching in its empathy for the girls. Even with the overuse of montage and time jumping, it’s clear that El-Bushra and Hall want the audience to see the girls as the complex, full human beings they are. Based on real accounts of teenagers leaving the U.K. to join ISIS, in another screenwriter’s hands the film could be sensationalist. Here, El-Bushra makes room for exploring the larger societal problems that push people into extremism: bullying, difficult familial circumstances, and isolation. It’s an ambitious and tricky feat to pull off, and for the most part it’s effective. However, the film gets in its own way by relying too much on memories, making for a semi-disorienting experience. One moment we’re with the girls in the present day as they make their harrowing journey, another we’re inside another memory or revisiting one that has been touched on before.

Even with its faults, Brides is an engaging and compelling watch. It’s an empathetic plea for understanding, and a reminder about the very human reasons people are pushed this far.

Grade: B

This review is from the 2025 Sundance Film Festival where Brides had its world premiere. The film does not currently have U.S. distribution.

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Alejandra Martinez

Alejandra Martinez is an award-winning writer, film critic, and archivist based in Austin, TX. She is a member of the Austin Film Critics Association. Her writing has been published in multiple outlets including The Austin Chronicle, The Wrap, RogerEbert.com, and Letterboxd Journal.

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