They say, sometimes, the journey is more important than the destination. In renowned theatre director Nadia Fall’s “Brides,” two runaway teenagers journey away from their seaside English hometown to Istanbul. They plan to cross over the border to Syria so that they can join ISIS. However, when their fixer – the one who was supposed to help them cross over doesn’t show up, the girls are in a definite mix. Their innocence leads them on an adventurous detour where they meet strangers – both good and bad – up until they decide to finally take the big plunge.
Based on the real-life story of two young women from East London who one day decided to leave their school, and fly across Europe to reach Istanbul, with the aim of getting across the border to join ISIS, “Brides” stars Ebada Hassan as Doe and Sagiyaa Ingar as Muna, the teenage girls that we follow on a similar journey. Belonging to the Muslim community with Doe being a Somalian refugee and Muna a Pakistani immigrant, we meet them when they are already hopping flights to a place they are unfamiliar with.
Their spirits are high but we can see that Doe is scared about something. Muna who is this badass young girl who would not let her friend come in harm’s way is trying her best to keep the symphony of freedom going. Their destination is of course not known to us initially, but we are made aware that they are without a proper guardian and running away. Doe is not picking up her mother’s call and Muna is very particular about not letting Doe’s introverted personality take away the agency that she has finally acquired after taking the big step of leaving her small-good-for-nothing-town.
Via flashbacks, we are made aware of the particulars that lead to their journey. Doe’s mother is in a toxic, abusive relationship with an English man – although it also might be that Doe’s orthodox Muslim preachings make her believe that her mother is impure. Consequently, Muna is physically and mentally abused by her oppressive father – but it is never actually made clear why the two of them decide to take the big step of moving continents to become war brides. Hints of a blooming romance between Doe and a young man are thrown in. Still, director Nadia Fall, who insists that her story is not able the radicalization of youth – never makes the big decision feels palpable.
While that may not be a big negative when Fall is more eager to understand the impulsiveness of what goes into a young mind or just investigate the depths of female friendship that has no bounds – the absence of a solid narrative device and unexplored character dynamics make is hard to take the story seriously. It also doesn’t help that the journey, which follows the girls in real-time is really uninteresting and the only time the film actually lights up is when we are either in a flashback sequence or finally getting to see the strength of the girl’s friendship – both of which occur in such fleeting moments that the film’s overall strength deteriorates to an extent where the power of the narrative fizzes out. Committed performance aside, there isn’t much in “Brides” that really makes it worth recommending.
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