Run time: 104 mins

Kill Bill meets Sense and Sensibility in Nida Manzoor’s fantastic, pulse-racing action comedy.

Martial artist-in-training Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) is convinced she must save her older sister Lena from her impending marriage. After enlisting the help of her friends, Ria attempts to pull off the most audacious and ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of independence and sisterhood.

Blending kung-fu action, coming-of-age, family drama, and comedy all into one, Manzoor delivers one of the most kick-ass movies of 2023. From the narrative structure this could so easily have been just another rom-com. There is much more style instead. Off the back of her vibrant Channel 4 sitcom We Are Lady Parts, which followed an all-female Muslim punk band, Manzoor embraces all the idiosyncratic parts of being a second-generation British-Pakistani immigrant to tell a story of ambition, family, femininity and mind-blowing martial arts. With a brilliant breakout performance from Kansara, whose dogged energy and wit calling to mind Parminder Nagra in Bend It Like Beckham, this is one film that packs an almighty punch.