Road Trip Movie is made for mad libs. A group of (solitary rash) go on a drive to (have an abortion); a couple (struggling family members) hit the road to (Blend the line between fiction and documentary filmmaking) – and that’s just the latest crop of movies about going out in search of (all kinds of things). Nadia FallsBride“Connects some rather unexpected elements to the ol’ road trip formula, with startling – and ultimately heartbreaking – results.
We don’t know exactly what DOE (newcomer Ebada Hassan) and Muna (an electric safiyya Ingar) are up to when film opens. Details from Suhayla El-Bushra’s script are initially slim, but it’s clear that “brides” have a lot to share, especially when Doe starts flashing back memories of her mother (Yusra Warsama) and their complicated, seemingly painful life together.
The One Story, Issued Early: We pick up Doe and Muna’s story in “England, 2014.”
Even for audience members with limited knowledge of the film’s plot, the time period and location will prick up a few ears. At the end of 2014, Britain’s teenager Sharmeena Begum left her home and traveled to Syria to become a “jihadi bride” for ISIL – or as we know it in the US, ISIS. It is believed that she had been encouraged into this mission by a pocket of ISIS-affiliated women known as the Sisters Forum. Two months later, three of her school friends joined her. But we don’t know this part of the story yet — or how it will intersect and affect Doe and Muna — we just know that these two BFFs are heading out of the country, fuzzy and a little scared.
There are hints, of course, and initially the strongest parts of Fall’s film are these more nuanced sequences. A reliance on flashbacks of all stripes ranks in the first half of the film, but they prove in their final act (still it’s tough going for a while). The pair fill up on ice cream and hamburgers at the airport and are ready for a more regular diet soon enough. They don’t fiddle with their phones like teenagers do; Looking at them, they look shy, even scared. And walking through airport security? For too long, the TSA focused on them, looking at the color of their skin (Doe is from Somalia, Muna’s family came from Pakistan) or maybe their name on their documents.
At the end of their flight to Turkey, we get more to work with: Doe and Muna are waiting for a woman named Hanan, a dreamy stranger they met on social media. A voiceover and winks from Facebook let us in on what she sold the couple. And Doe and Muna have bought it, waiting hours and hours in the gloomy Istanbul airport for an escort who never comes, eventually deciding on another crazy choice on top of a lot of them. They are going to Syria, no matter what it takes.
Fall upholds many tonal expectations of road-trip comedy and coming-of-age storytelling, to startling effect, as Doe and Muna lie, steal and wheedle their way through Turkey to reach the border. There’s a cracking bit involving securing bus tickets that eventually lands them in the orbit of a good-natured ticket seller (Cemre Ebuzziya), leading to the kind of pulse-pounding you feel a little Poor To be enjoyed as entertainment (this is a compliment). The thorniness of the subject of the case is always apparent; As she tries to balance dueling ideas, themes and tones, “Brides” is at its most exciting when the director pushes these tensions.
Initially, it is at odds with El-Bushra’s flashback-heavy script. As Doe and Muna make their way through Turkey, we’re often sent back to see how the girls got here, with a disturbing emphasis on Doe’s backstory (we learn more about Muna later, but Ingar is so blinded to see that it’s a real shame we have to wait for these moments). It’s not just Doe’s home life that’s lacking (her mother’s shifty boyfriend isn’t helpful), it’s also her experience at school where her quiet nature and choice to wear the hijab draw her into the line of sight of merciless bullies. She has a bit of a break with the local Muslim community, especially when she starts spending time with the handsome and sweet Samir (Ali Khan), but we know that all of this will eventually come to some kind of end, based on where the DOE is Now.
It may be an incorrect one. While the current path of Doe and Muna is the more compelling part of “Brides”—something unique and thought-provoking, a truly worthy addition to the road trip movie canon—the constant building of their past is what turns out to pack the real punch. Where Are Doe and Muna now? We know, and we know how they got there, and even why, but in the final act of the film dares fall to explore more about who Doe and Muna were before. WHOnot where or how becomes the key to revealing “brides,” and when we realize that in the film’s shifting final moments, as it leads us firmly in a new direction, it’s impossible not to be moved.
Grade: B-
“Brides” premiered in 2025 Sundance Film festival. It is currently seeking US distribution.
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