Two teenage girls decide to run away from the United Kingdom to travel to Syria after experiencing Islamophobic discrimination in school.[3] When their fixer doesn't turn up to their arranged meeting place, they get stranded in Istanbul, and must find a way to travel to the Syrian border before someone realises they've run away from home.
The film comes from director Nadia Fall, in her feature-length debut, and screenwriter Suhayla El-Bushra. It is produced by Nicky Bentham for Neon Films alongside Marica Stocchi for Rosamont.[4]
Catryn Ramasut and Alice Lusher of Ie Ie productions are co-producers. It is a UK and Italian co-production and is supported by the BFI and Ffilm Cymru Wales, Creative Wales, Great Point Media, the Italian Ministry of Culture Minority Co-production Fund, Friuli Venezia Giuila Audiovisual regional fund and Rai Cinema with Bankside Films handling international sales. It was developed with the BFI and won the Breaking Through the Lens Action Grant in 2023.[5]
Principal photography took place in Wales, Turkey and Italy.[6] The bus station scene was shot at the same bus station in Turkey where Shamima Begum and her friends waited.[2]
Release
The film premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.[7] It screened at the Munich Film Festival where it won the Fritz Gerlich Trophy for its contribution to human rights and antiracism through cinema. The jury described Brides as an examination of how young people must be "cared for with care and attention, warned against, and protected from dangerous manipulation," and shows "how a series of minor catastrophes ultimately escalate into a major catastrophe." The jury for the prize continued, "the film impresses with its topicality”.
Brides was released in the United Kingdom on September 26, 2025[1] by Vue Lumière, with a nationwide preview day on September 23 and a special Q&A screening at BFI Southbank on September 25.
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