“Brides” Asks for Compassion for Our Youths

Director Nadia Fall is exuberant, thankful, and gracious. Her first feature film, Brides, is premiering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Kim Yutani, the director of programming at Sundance, introduces the film, calling it “bold … a true rarity … a loving coming-of-age story about girlhood and friendships.” 

When Fall steps onto the stage, her presence and words radiate warmth, strength, and compassion. “This is indeed my debut, my first feature… appearing at an auspicious festival… Thank you, Sundance, so much! And I’m also over the moon because I have my brilliant gaggle of women here who made the film with me.” She proceeds to acknowledge her film team with gratitude.

Not wanting to say very much about the film before its premiere, she leaves the audience with her thoughts. “This is a love letter to girls and young women. At a time when a lot of people are dimming the lights of young women, I want to say, don’t let them. If there’s one thing that people will take away from this, I hope it’s the fact that all the children, whatever language they speak, whatever dress they wear, or whatever gods they worship, all the children are our children.” 

Brides is a film about two high school best friends who want to break free from family difficulties, social restraints, and otherness and gain independence from expectations and norms. It’s a whole world full of possibilities for Doe and Muna (played by Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar) when they decide to run away from home in the U.K. to travel to Turkey and ultimately to the Syrian border. With an unorganized plan, the girls set out on their journey and encounter the thrills as well as the setbacks that they must overcome. It’s a transformative experience, one where both of them must depend on each other and their beliefs and fall back on the daring and unstoppable drive found in youths.