Sundance Review: "Brides" is a Compelling Chronicle of Friendship with Terrific Leads

by Abe Friedtanzer

There are many stories of people running away from war zones, struggling to adjust to their new surroundings and longing for memories of home. But that’s not the sentiment everyone has, and it can be precisely the opposite for those who have never felt like they belong. Brides spotlights two best friends so disillusioned and unhappy with their lives in the United Kingdom that they decide to run away together to move to Syria and find a community that can truly appreciate them...

It’s 2014, and Muna (Safiyya Ingar) and Doe (Ebada Hassan) come from different backgrounds, with Doe having arrived from Somalia at a young age and connecting deeply to Muslim culture, and the foul-mouthed Muna, whose family is Pakistani, not quite as close to her religion. Negative family experiences compel them to plan a treacherous journey that first takes them to Istanbul and soon goes off-course when their expected ride isn’t there, forcing them to get creative and find a way to make it to the complete opposite side of the country so that they can cross into Syria. 

Nadia Fall, best known for her theater work and her current role as artistic director of the Young Vic, makes her feature directorial debut with this sensitive and passionate look at two young girls whose personalities couldn’t be more different. Their rather chaotic adventure doesn’t seem like it should be taking them to a place where they’ll not only be in close proximity to such danger and violence but also will find them conforming to a society unlike the one in which they were raised. To them, however, that’s the appeal, and while Muna is in many ways able to interact more easily with the world around her, the much more conservative and traditionally-garbed Doe longs not to stand out anymore.

This film finds spectacular stars in its two lead actresses. Ingar is full of attitude and furious energy, and Muna is most watchable when she becomes quietly resentful and takes her best friend to task for being drawn to her phone and considering answering her mom’s calls, putting everything at risk. In her film debut, Hassan is astounding, painting Doe as someone who has been taught to respect her elders and not pick a fight but who harbors an unsubtle rage towards her mother’s abusive partner, just one of the many motivations for her to leave a more tranquil existence for an unpredictable country in the middle of a war.

While there’s something dreamlike and appealing to the way this film is constructed, it’s still hard to reconcile the three vastly different worlds portrayed within it: lackluster UK, vast and somewhat mysterious Turkey, and the endgame of Syria. It’s certainly appealing as a story, but understanding how they got far enough to actually try this is more of an open-ended question the film chooses not to answer. The lack of preparation in a sense feels realistic, but it’s still a wonder they got as far as they did in boarding a plane to Istanbul and planning to leave it all behind. It’s equally challenging to find the right point to end on, but this film smartly opts to highlight its best assets: the friendship that drives its two characters on this wild, alluring ride to a potentially disastrous destination. B

Brides makes its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.