The Brides of Sundance: Nadia Fall, Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar

While it may be just a little drive up the mountains for locals, for many, the Sundance Film Festival is a journey — physically, creatively, emotionally and spiritually. Brides, a stunning new film premiering as part of the World Dramatic Competition, tells the story of a harrowing journey made by two teenaged Muslim girls from the U.K., and their story was a profound the journey for director Nadia Fall and her leading ladies, Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar. 

“It basically started because Suhayla El-Bushra, the writer, and I met on a play we did together,” Fall says.  “We both had a background in working with young people.” A celebrated stage director known for her work as the artistic director of Theatre Royal Stratford East and now the artistic director and joint-chief executive of The Young Vic Theatre in London, Fall brings her talent for storytelling to the screen with a compassionate and gripping feature film debut. 

“The editing process was a whole other art form I hadn’t encountered in theater. It was a real baptism by fire, but it was so thrilling.” 

The story for Brides was ripped right from the headlines, one that Fall was determined to get right. “At the time, the news was filled with stories about young people leaving the U.K. for Syria,” Fall says. In particular, the case of Shamima Begum, who, at the age of 15, traveled to Syria after having been groomed online, and was trafficked by ISIS smugglers in 2015  to become a child bride. When Begum finally came home to East London, she was vilified by the public and summarily stripped of her citizenship in the United Kingdom by her government, and more girls like her suffered a similar fate. “We were half nervous about telling the story because we didn’t want to vilify our community or make negative assumptions,” Fall says. “But we thought, someone’s going to tell this story, and it better be us. We wanted to humanize people being portrayed as monsters — because they were ultimately young women, legally children. It was a long labor of love, but finally, the film gods allowed us to make it.”

Fall’s experience in theater shaped her approach to filmmaking, though the transition wasn’t without its challenges. “I do what I do because I love actors — they’re the paint in a painting,” she says. “Working closely with Ebada and Safiyya was so important. But filmmaking is a big transition. The editing process, for example, was a whole other art form I hadn’t encountered in theater. It was a real baptism by fire, but it was so thrilling.” 

Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar star as Doe and Muna, respectively, two best friends who felt marginalized, bullied and alone in the U.K., and set out together for Syria. These characters are the heart and soul of the film, and casting director Shaheen Baig sent out a wide casting notice and searched extensively to find the right pair. A brand new actress making her screen debut, the opportunity was a leap of faith for Hassan. “The casting call was open, posted on social media. A few friends sent it to me, and it struck me because they were looking for an East African character, which I rarely see,” Hassan says. ”I was studying acting at the time and thought, why not grab the chance? So I sent in a self-tape.” Ingar, who has previously appeared on The Witcher and came to Sundance in 2024 as part of the cast of Layla, joined the project under very different circumstances. “I wasn’t originally cast,”  Ingar says. “Through a different set of circumstances, the original actor had to drop out. I happened to be in the right place at the right time. I remember I’d just gotten a massive rejection for another project and was devastated. Then this fell into my lap … I believe things happen for a reason. When I read the script, I thought, ‘This is everything I believe in.’ Politically and personally, it spoke to me deeply.”

“I’m a Muslim kid who grew up post-9/11. I’ve seen how the conversation around Islam has evolved in ways far beyond our control.”

As Hassan and Ingar found themselves representing real people and real experiences, it became more than just a film, but a chance to open hearts and minds. “I’m a Muslim kid who grew up post-9/11. I’ve seen how the conversation around Islam has evolved in ways far beyond our control,” Ingar says. “It’s now this weird, homogenized mess, and I don’t think people realize how much they’ve been duped into thinking a very specific way about a huge, global religious community.” Even more important than battling prejudices and preconceived ideas about Muslims was driving home the point that young girls like Begum weren’t monsters, but helpless victims. “This film is important because it asks people to question that perspective,” Ingar says. “It shows these two girls as they are — children. What do you really know at 15? What compels you to make such life-altering decisions?” 

For Hassan, the hope is that people will find empathy thought the film.  “It’s ultimately just a story about two girls, one who’s Black and one who’s brown,” Hassan says. “And I think all three of us would just really love for people to empathize and put their prejudices aside for the 90 minutes of this film and just watch these girls go on this journey, try to put themselves in their shoes, and understand the pressures that pushed them to do what they did.”

Brides is more than a movie; it’s a deeply human exploration of identity, agency and the stories society tells itself. Fall, Hassan and Ingar have created a work that doesn’t just inform, but demands introspection. With its Sundance premiere, Brides cements Nadia Fall as a filmmaker with a singular vision, and it shines a light on the talents of Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar — voices that we should be expecting the hear a lot from for years to come.

Read more of SLUG’s coverage of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.