Director: Nadia Fall

Stars: Ebada Hassan, Safiyya Ingar, Leo Bill

Inspired by the Shamima Begum affair, British director Nadia Fall's picture is an empathetic, surprisingly upbeat and well-played plea for understanding and nuance. Doe (newcomer Hassan) and Muna (Ingar) are fifteen-year-old school friends. Doe had emigrated to the UK from Somali with her mother Khadija (Yusra Warsama) when she was three. Her mother has embraced the Western lifestyle and drinks and parties with her sometimes abusive British boyfriend. Feeling alienated by her vulgar mother, Doe has retreated into a more traditional Muslim lifestyle. Muna meanwhile is a mouthy but charismatic rebel, well-liked at school but subject to her disproving elder brother’s temper at home. Their respective situations, and unlikely friendship makes them vulnerable to online radical grooming. Fall charts their trip to London and later Istanbul, where they plan to make their way to Syria. At this point, it all feels like high-spirited teen larks, save for Muna’s ominous insistence that Doe does not answer her phone. Flashbacks fill us in on what brought them up to this point. The picture occasionally feels sketchy in its plotting and its scripting, but the director, a Young Vic director and playwright, draws fine naturalistic performances from her luminous young leads, with Hassan and Ingar exhibiting a real affectionate rapport.

David Willoughby

Follow David on Bluesky @davidwilloughby.bsky.social