Pop Culture Advent 2023: Door 12

Polite Society

Today’s entry is the film Polite Society, which is nominated from a very good pal of mine, playwright and poet, Mohammed Barber.

Polite Society is a ‘British martial arts action comedy’, and the writing/directing feature film debut of Nida Manzoo, best known for creating the Channel 4/ Peacock show, We Are Lady Parts.

Polite Society tells the story of Ria Khan (Priya Kansara),a martial artist-in-training, who aspires to be a movie stunt performer like her idol, Eunice Huthart.

Training under her alter-ego name, The Fury, Ria creates martial arts films with the help of her older sister, Lena (The Umbrella Academy’s Ritu Arya). Lena has recently returned home to live with Ria and their parents Fatima and Rafe (portrayed by Shobu Kapoor and Jeff Mirza), after dropping out of art school. Not only that, Ria’s parents have traditional values, and are unsupportive of Ria’s martial arts dreams.

Ria’s skills are needed once Lena becomes engaged to Salim (Akshay Khanna). Suspicious by the behaviour of his mother, social climber Raheela (Nimra Bucha), Ria enlists her closest friends, Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri), to pull off the ultimate wedding heist.

Mohammed recommends this film “because it just bizarre (in the best way!)…think Mission Impossible except Ria Khan is trying to stop a wedding, not a terrorist attack”.

Having seen the film myself, I can absolutely echo these comments. It’s a film that keeps you guessing, with a turn of events in the last act that I absolutely didn’t see coming. It’s got really strong female performances, a laugh out loud script, and a really touching story around sisterhood and the expectations that we place on others.

I’m sad not more people are talking about Polite Society. It’s available for streaming, so do seek it out!

Mohammed’s words can be heard as part of “Bear Left: an anthology of Christmas plays”, produced by theatre company 53Two. The show is on at Arch 19 in Manchester, and runs from 13th — 23rd December. Tickets can be purchased here.