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PARK CITY, UTAH Jan. 25 (UPI) — Brides, which premiered Friday at the Sundance Film Festival, is a stark example of depiction not equaling endorsement. The British drama portrays teenage girls who are radicalized to join ISIS, and hopefully serves the interest of combating the phenomenon.
Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar play Doe and Muna, young women who leave England in 2014 to join Islamic State fighters. When their arranged escort does not meet them at the airport in Turkey, Doe (Hassan) and Muna (Ingar) attempt the journey to Syria themselves.
The film reflects a real-life phenomenon where ISIS recruits Muslim women to join them as their brides. To depict young people making such a drastic choice requires empathy for their situation, otherwise, it would become an ineffective and preachy scolding.
Suhayla El-Bushra’s script shows what led Doe and Muna to make such a perilous journey to a dangerous destination. El-Bushra and director Nadia Fall are careful not to cross the line into justification, and the festival’s vague synopsis of Brides positions the film as a cautionary tale, calling the girls’ plan “misguided.”
Doe and Muna’s journey shares a surprising but striking similarity to an American road trip movie. In Hollywood, however, when travelers miss their bus or lose their money and travel documents, it is fodder for comedy.
The consequences of Doe and Muna’s trip are more dire. Even if they don’t make it to Syria, they are two minors traveling alone and abroad. They meet kind and helpful families in Turkey, but also just as many people who profile them as suspicious for innocuous behavior, such as playing laser tag at a public venue.
In flashbacks, viewers see the life in England the pair are escaping from. Muna is Pakistani and Doe, short for Fedosa, is Somali, and both girls are bullied by Islamophobic White students. Muna gets suspended for fighting back.
Doe lives in a household with an abusive White man, which often distracts her caretakers from focusing on Doe’s activities and well-being. Doe’s mother, however, keeps calling her in a panic, showing there is love there.
Brides doesn’t spoon feed the viewer information, which might feel like soft-pedaling the more controversial aspects of the story. For example, Doe and Muna take advantage of strangers’ kindness and generosity without openly discussing their true motivations.
A flashback late in the film shows a teacher instructing Doe on the distinction between fighting nonbelievers and teaching Islam to others, with the teacher promoting the latter. With their journey, Doe and Muna are attempting to align with the fighters, but at least Doe was presented an alternative.
The anti-Muslim sentiment Doe and Mena encounter certainly makes living in England appear inhospitable. While this doesn’t justify terrorism as the alternative, discussions about such situations require nuance. Extremist groups count on a lack of nuance to entice young people with an extreme alternative to their real hardships.
Doe and Mena are seeking a home where they can feel connected, but they don’t speak much about the possibility of entering the cycle of violence themselves. Perhaps this speaks to a naivety that desperate teenagers cling to.
If the pair are seeking retaliatory violence, they don’t say so explicitly. Muna does keep challenging Doe’s resolve to see their journey through, implying that she sees it as an act of bravery.
Muna is the more aggressive character of the two. She has adopted an in-your-face personality and uses hip-hop infused slang, creating quite the contradiction between the western influences that have shaped her and her ultimate intentions.
Ingar embodies the duality of that performance with energy. Meanwhile, Hassan, in her first film, makes Doe sympathetic while speaking far less.
Doe and Muna’s friendship is tested throughout the setbacks of the journey. A tale of girls sticking together would be heartwarming, except here one hopes that one of them will call the plan off.
Brides has empathy for Muna and Doe. While it doesn’t appear to condone their actions, even understanding them might be a controversial take for a drama.
Brides is uncomfortable to watch, but ignoring the issues won’t help. Just as there are movies about Americans who get recruited by hate groups, Brides illuminates a disturbing trend abroad.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.