Not too late turn back... until it is | Brides (2025) (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts - video Dailymotion

Film Brain

Two British teenagers make a fateful journey in this dark take on the coming-of-age film, but Film Brain thinks it struggles with the difficult subject matter.

Transcript

00:00Two teenagers make a terrible pact together in the British drama, Bride.

00:05Muslim teens Derwin Muna, played by Abadah Hassan and Safiya Ingar respectively,

00:10decide they'll run away from home and travel to Syria to become Bride,

00:14flying into Turkey and crossing the border.

00:17But when their fixer fails to appear, they try to make their own way there,

00:20but will they make the decision to turn back?

00:24Bride is the feature debut of acclaimed theatre director Nadia Fall,

00:27and it's tackling a difficult subject matter,

00:29but she wanted to get beyond the sensationalist headlines about this subject

00:33and try to answer a more empathetic question, namely, why would anyone even do this?

00:39It's a film where the audience know from the outset that the main characters are making a horrendous mistake,

00:44and I have to admit I spent a lot of this with the futile hope that one of them would realise that and give up.

00:51But as the film's flashbacks make clear, the reason they would consider this

00:54is because of their dysfunctional and abusive home lives, prejudice, and sense of cultural dislocation.

01:00The main characters are clearly vulnerable young people whose circumstances make them susceptible to manipulation

01:06and the deluded belief that this will lead to a better life.

01:10That's despite the fact that once they arrive in Istanbul and go further into Turkey,

01:14they encounter a number of more positive examples of lives they could have,

01:18from a bus employee to a family man they hitchhike with,

01:21who either aid them or, in some instances, try to stop them once they realise what they're doing.

01:27And yet, the strange thing is that, despite the stakes,

01:29the film mostly avoids having a lot of tension running through it opting for a conventional road movie structure.

01:35It's only when they get close to the end does that sense of dread become more prominent.

01:40The two leads give good performances, but the writing clearly makes the choice to focus more on Doe,

01:45who is having second thoughts about abandoning her mother and see things more from her perspective.

01:50That means that Muna, who is completely determined to leave her life behind,

01:54is left under-characterised and explored, which doesn't help when she's prone to taking her anger out on others.

02:01Despite the heavy subject, the film tries to have some levity by focusing more on their friendship and solidarity,

02:07and uses the non-linear structure to end things on a slightly less devastating note.

02:12But I also think that means the movie shies away from the thornier questions of radicalisation,

02:17casting them as naive teens who don't realise the gravity of their choices.

02:21At times, you can almost imagine a darker version,

02:24especially over whether Muna radicalised Doe and where that friendship is ultimately a destructive one.

02:30I think this is a valiant attempt at trying to handle a tricky subject,

02:34but it didn't quite work for me, both in its very episodic structure and pacing,

02:38but also because it can't quite face the more uncomfortable complexities of its story.

02:43The following point ofчи do you have the same rule,

02:46as in the entire country?

02:48So if you will say that Muna,

02:49the Hone of C,

02:50what do you have the same rule here?

02:52Then the Hone of C,

02:53what do you have the same rule here is,

02:54what do you want to do to be the same rule here?

03:00So if you can make a small rule here,

03:02you can make a small rule here.

03:04If you have the same rule here,

03:07you can make a small rule here.

03:08Now,

03:10let's put the same rule here.

03:11No,

Not too late turn back... until it is | Brides (2025) (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts

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