They felt like children we all know.
The film captures life.
The films premiering at theSundanceFilm Festival early Friday night at the Egyptian.
Safiyya Ingar and Ebada Hassain in ‘Brides’BFI/Bankside
Such stories were, she says, a hot topic at my old theater where I worked in Stratford.
And just really, theres different incidents, not just the Shamima Begum story.
Theres the London riot several years ago where young people are sort of vilified and demonized.
Nadia FallCourtesy Nadia Fall
Its almost subhuman in some way.
And you just go, Listen, above all were talking about children and young people, minors.
Lets just say that in the first instance.
Everybody had a different push and a different pull, there isnt a one size fits all.
Nor would I ever want to be that person making a film saying this plus this equals this.
Its not an idiots guide to radicalism, she asserts.
And thats how our brain is programmed.
Its about the risk of adolescence and friendship, she says simply.
And we explore all the reasons why they might have made this pact to run away.
So the story is actually lifted on reality, Fall reasons.
Another point Fall makes is that its about belonging.
Its about the need to belong as well, she says.
We all need to belong somewhere.
However misguided that is, she adds ruefully.
And also I was struck by their family backgrounds.
Exactly, says Fall.
It isnt just always the lack of love.
Are we that far away from who they are?
And we joked about the fact that theres elements of us and our teenage conflict or struggles in it.
Obviously its not our story, but we really felt very close to those characters, Fall shares.
Films are little moments of time that you never forget, the best ones anyway.
That was from something James Stewart observed decades ago.
One such moment inBridesis when Muna and Doe are drinking milkshakes and Doe kind of slurps it.
I used to do that, my son and siblings used to do that.
To me, it just encapsulates the fact that theyre kids.
Its when we start going down a really slippery slope.
And I just think weve got to talk and weve got to recognize each other.
Theyre just two young women with thejoie de vivreof life, she says, smiling warmly.
And its so intimate.
You die for your best friend when you are a teenager.
And its not a sexual thing.
Its just so intense.
We love our friends at that age, she states.
When Muna sees Doe for the first time, she sees her eyes and looks right into them.
Oh, you have beautiful eyes, she exclaims.
Again, another tiny, tender moment that has the power to say so much.
And girls really do have these friendships, Fall adds.
You see girls holding hands going down the road, laughing to each other.
Its very potent, and it can go the other way for teenage girls as well.
Fall and El-Bushra understand the psychological make-up of youth.
Theres a Caucasian kid at Does school who bullies her.
Its a deeply felt performance from a young British actor by the name of Mitchell Brown.
We werent interested in seeing anyone as in a really crude black-and-white way, Fall remarks.
Mitchell is the school bully, but behind every bully theres a story.
So it wasnt about having well-known household name famous actors in it.., Fall says.
But they wanted to be in it and support and theyre brilliant.
But Hassan, who plays Doe, had never acted before.
Fall had never worked with Baig before.
She really has so much compassion and wisdom around casting authentically young people, people from a certain background.
I thought, How are we going to do this?
And she went out on socials, her and her team.
We had hundreds, I think 600 TikTok submissions and little short videos.
And after that we did one-on-one auditions.
And then after that did group auditions.
And they asked some really pertinent questions, says Fall.
Like, Why are you doing this?
and How do you feel the Muslim community will react?
Theres always the policemen in your head as an artist going, Do you really want to do this?
Do you want to really open this can of worms?
Your body sort of flinches because you go, I dont believe you.
All of that, I say, nodding away.
Ingar was on Falls original list from having seen her at the Orange Tree Theatre.
Was it the films subject matter, I ask Fall?
A little bit, Fall responds.
And it was really complex.
They were a month out, very little time considering the time that had been spent on workshops already.
We were very, very close to the wire.
Silly little things like eat now, sleep, to try and give her the inside knowledge.
Also, it was Falls first time on a feature film as well.
Shooting at 3 in the morning.
And we shot in three different countries, she cries.
Fall had nothing to compare it with.
When you just dont know, you just go into things.
And we were in Wales with one team then in Turkey with another team.
And it was different languages, different cultures, different ways of working.
I hope that the films widely seen and isnt savaged by the usual village idiots.
They know who they are.
Fall says: There are girls and boys in classrooms right here, right now.
That could be, go another way.
If we take our communal responsibility to be all of us, they are all our children.
The children are all our children.
The minute you stop thinking that you better ask yourself a question.
Shes planning her first season at the Young Vic.
But there will be another film.
This time a rom-com.
The best ones, likeNotting HillandFour Weddings and a Funeral, are classics she says.
