Stills from We Are Lady Parts season 2, coming May 30

A NOTE FROM NIDA MANZOOR (CREATOR/WRITER/DIRECTOR/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) IN PEACOCK'S PRESS RELEASE: Making season one of We Are Lady Parts was immense for me. It was a trial by fire, but I found my voice, my style and my confidence in creating this show. Most importantly, I found my tribe - from actors and crew to producers and studio execs. So, coming to season two, I was galvanised. The characters, the world, the tone - it was all there, established, and ready to go. Now it was time to turn things up to 11. I wanted to go bolder, sillier, darker and deeper and that is exactly what we strived to do. In season two, we explore the interior lives of each of the women in more depth. Each of them facing new, existential challenges with all the silliness, pratfalls and banter of season one. The music is bigger too - more wild original tunes (penned by me and my siblings) and dare I say it, even better covers. The season overall asks the question of success. What is success? For a punk band - is fame, stadium shows and major record deals the answer? I wanted to explore the uncomfortable tension between art and commerce and ask how much compromise is too much. I'm really proud of what we achieved, and can't wait to share it with old fans and new.

"They wanted me to get out of my head and into my body, release my demons, unclench my sphincter, find my Zen."

WE ARE LADY PARTS S1 (2021) Created, written and directed by Nida Manzoor

Top 10 of 2023

Polite Society dir. Nida Manzoor

Rye Lane dir. Raine Allen-Miller

Showing Up dir. Kelly Reichardt

Blue Jean dir. Georgia Oakley

Reality dir. Tina Satter

How to Have Sex dir. Molly Manning

Anatomy of a Fall dir. Justine Triet

Past Lives dir. Celine Song

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret dir. Kelly Fremon Craig

A Thousand and One dir. A.V. Rockwell

Honourable Mentions:

Fair Play dir. Chloe Dumont, Priscilla dir. Sofia Coppola, The Pod Generation dir. Sophie Barthes, You Hurt My Feelings dir. Nicole Holofcener, Bottoms dir. Emma Seligman

Women in Film Challenge 2024: [6/52] Polite Society, dir. Nida Manzoor (UK, 2023)

I mean, what is it with men, am I right? I’m no expert, but they just seem to destroy things: the economy, the ozone, the rainforests. I just – I don’t know. It’s like the whole universe revolves around them, bending to their will. Maybe it’s time the universe bends to someone else.

POLITE SOCIETY | 2023, Nida Manzoor

Polite Society (2023)

Polite Society (2023), dir. Nida Manzoor

“There was a point where everyone in town had said no to Polite Society, and it really knocked my confidence.” She even remembers people telling her: “‘My influences are too male.’ I’m like, ‘Who has been making cinema?!’”

The film was greenlighted thanks to the success of We Are Lady Parts, which premiered in 2021. She wrote the show after feeling demoralized by some of the offers she was getting, like being asked to co-write a project with a white male writer “and just be the brown person who can give that point of view and the rubber-stamping of his stuff.” Similarly, she was demoralized by the one-dimensional portrayals of Muslim women on screen, such as stories with “a misery porn vibe,” which bore no resemblance to her life. “I’d just been asked to do lots of really annoying shows, being asked to write dramas about Muslim women being oppressed, long-suffering,” she said. “The annoyance of having been asked to write all this stuff that wasn’t my experience of being a Muslim woman made me create Lady Parts.”

As with Polite Society, when she started pitching We Are Lady Parts, she met a lot of resistance. “We Are Lady Parts got turned down basically everywhere, except for one place, and that was Channel 4 and then Peacock,” she said. “It was a lot of people being like, ‘I don’t think we can do this. Is this offensive? Are people going to get upset?’... I’m like, ‘This is just a Muslim woman expressing joy!’”

Polite Society (2023) | dir. Nida Manzoor

POLITE SOCIETY dir. Nida Manzoor, 2023

new-to-me #961 - Polite Society

I'm Ria Khan. I am going to be a stuntwoman. My sister Lena is the only person who believes in me, but lately she's been seeing this guy who I think is a bit of a smarmy wanker. Now, I'm not being dramatic, but these people are evil.

Polite Society (2023) dir. Nida Manzoor

I've got so much I want to say about Polite Society. But I refuse to post anything too spoilery yet.

So one thing I will say is the way Lena's depression and mental health is written is incredible. So often when men write women with mental health issues they write this sort of "prettily struggling" womsn in a spiral.

(this infamous queens gambit scene comes to mind)

They're never allowed to actually be ugly or gross or even not have their hair and makeup be perfect.

Like beth here is in a pretty frilly top shes reclining in an uncomfortable fashion. Her makeup looks perfect and he cardigan is prettily draped over her shoulders. She's meant to be attractive. Her sadness is almost fetishised.

but then Lena looks like this

Whereas Lena's a WRECK. It's considered an achievement she showered. AND shes proud of herself for that small acomplishment. Shes angry. She destroys her work. She's dressed in sweats and pyjamas with either no makeup (if i remember correctly) or makeup that looks like it's been on for days. There's a scene where shes wandering aimlessly and just buys a duck to eat. And she does not eat it daintily or prettily (and no its not a chicken ppl seem to be confused).

I love that she spends all the first act in hoodies and pajamas looking like shes not washed in 3 days. It's just so good to see a woman direct another woman with depression. There's so much to be said about the male gaze and how it even impacts the portrayal of women going through crisis. The removal of that lens has created what I will argue is the most authentic experience of depression in a woman I've maybe ever seen. I literally cannot think of another time I've seen that.

Anyways Nida Manzoor I love you.

Something so refreshing about Polite Society (2023) is that we have this film about a teenage girl who wants to become a stuntwoman, who is actively working towards it, who improves across the film, and is allowed to actually fight? And it’s also completely detached from her gender? (People just bag on her dream job because it’s a difficult entertainment-industry career path).

Like Ria is a purple belt in her martial art (looked and sounded like karate but purple belt so maybe ju-jistu?) which is a high rank, meaning she’s been working towards it for a long long time. She’s also got a boxing bag hanging in her room that we see her training on, her sister holds pads for her, and she has two dummy’s in her backyard. Plus - her YouTube channel showcasing her progress and stuntwoman practice. Ria is living the martial arts dream tbh.

Ria and other characters use pieces of multiple martial arts in the film (I spotted Muay Thai, BJJ, Karate, Boxing, and of course Kung Fu). And while much of the fight scenes are stylised, there were very practical self defence elements mixed between (the double elbow strike down to someone grabbing your throat, for example). I love that Priya who played Ria apparently eagerly tried every stunt that she was allowed to because she knew Ria would have wanted to.

Overall, I just loved this film and the subtle details. Nida Manzoor has made a brilliant debut feature film and I want every to see it.

"This is us. By us. For us."

WE ARE LADY PARTS S1 (May 20, 2021) Created, written and directed by Nida Manzoor

Every Film I Watch In 2023:

89. Polite Society (2023)