Polite Society is a London-set anarchic action comedy that follows Ria Khan, a bolshy school girl and martial artist-in-training who dreams of becoming a world renowned stunt woman. When Ria witnesses her big sister Lena give up on her dreams by dropping out of art school and getting engaged, Ria’s world is shaken. She believes she must save her sister from the shackles of marriage in the only way she knows how, by enlisting the help of her friends and attempting to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of freedom and sisterhood. Polite Society is a merry mash up of sisterly affection, parental disappointment and bold and bloody action.
Review:
The wickedly funny, cinematically exuberant debut feature of Nida Manzoor (creator of
We Are Lady Parts),
Polite Society is an Austenesque tale of two sisters (one in wedding shackles) by way of a loving, anarchic mashup of genres (action comedy, heist, martial arts, Bollywood, social horror). Moreover, it’s an ingenious refashioning of British diasporic storytelling. Newcomer and force of nature Priya Kansara leads an amazing cast, including Ritu Arya as Lena and Nimra Bucha as the nefarious Shah matriarch.