LWLies 98: The Polite Soci­ety issue – Out now!

If you already own sun­glass­es, go and put them on now. If you don’t, then go and buy some. That’s because LWLies issue 98 is one of the most bright­ly coloured issues we’ve ever made, and that’s say­ing some­thing. Our cheer­ful­ly florid colour scheme forms a per­fect match with cov­er film Polite Soci­ety, about an angry young woman whose dream of becom­ing a stunt­woman is put on hold when she has to pre­vent her sis­ter from mar­ry­ing a wealthy and pos­si­bly sin­is­ter bachelor.

As paid-up fans of Nida Manzoor’s Chan­nel 4 sit­com, We Are Lady Parts, antic­i­pa­tion lev­els were already unfea­si­bly high for the writer-director’s tran­si­tion to the big screen. And with its gym­nas­tic cam­era move­ments, snap­py edit­ing and numer­ous cin­e­mat­ic ref­er­ence points, We Are Lady Parts per­haps con­cealed Manzoor’s desire to move in that direc­tion. Polite Soci­ety sits com­fort­ably in the rich con­tin­u­um of films which explore the lives of South Asian fam­i­lies both adapt­ing to the land­scape of con­tem­po­rary Britain, and forg­ing their own idio­syn­crat­ic path.

Yet it’s the live­ly genre twist which makes Polite Soci­ety feel like a world away from clas­sic Brit dias­po­ra dra­mas such as Bha­ji on the Beach and Bend it Like Beck­ham. Man­zoor draws in the colours, tones and musi­cal­i­ty of Bol­ly­wood, as well as the bone-crunch­ing but com­ic vio­lence that is inte­gral to mar­tial arts clas­sics fea­tur­ing the likes of Sam­mo Hung, Bruce Lee and Jack­ie Chan.

On the cov­er of the issue we have Polite Society’s bois­ter­ous lead Priya Kansara who plays scorned sis­ter Ria with a blend of des­per­a­tion and out­right fury. With our design, we want­ed to pay homage to the film’s com­ic ener­gy, as it feels like the sort of thing that’s been adapt­ed from your favourite graph­ic nov­el. It’s a film we love, and an issue we’re tremen­dous­ly proud of. We hope it will oper­ate as a delight­ful amuse bouche pri­or to the film’s UK release on 21 April and also a keep­sake for the inevitable long term fan­dom it gen­er­ates – espe­cial­ly once Nida strikes it big in Hol­ly­wood, as we’re sure she will.

On the cover

It’s a thrill for us to announce a col­lab­o­ra­tion with Pak­istani illus­tra­tor She­hzil Malik, whose work focus­es pri­mar­i­ly on women’s sto­ries from her home coun­try. Her amaz­ing port­fo­lio can be viewed at she​hzil​.com.

Else­where in the issue we have excel­lent new work from artists Stéphanie Sergeant, Shin-Yeon Moon, Sule­man Aqeel Khilji, Dan Evans and Vid­hya Nagara­jan.

In this issue

Lead Review: Polite Soci­ety
Fati­ma Sher­iff writes in praise of Nida Manzoor’s exu­ber­ant fea­ture debut.

The Big Boss
Soma Ghosh in con­ver­sa­tion with writer/​director Nida Man­zoor on fight­ing, fem­i­nism and gen­er­a­tional schisms.

Make ​’Em Laugh
A brief his­to­ry of film­mak­ers who have made sit­coms (and sit­com mak­ers who have direct­ed films).

Fist of Fury
Han­nah Strong meets Polite Society’s feisty lead, Priya Kansara, to talk the epic prep required to play a teen stuntwoman-in-the-making.

Way of the Drag­on
David Jenk­ins chats to Ritu Arya about her eclec­tic career path and forg­ing bonds with the cast and crew of Polite Society.

Throw­ing Punch­es
Anna Bogut­skaya meets Shaina West, a social media sen­sa­tion and movie stunt­woman on the cusp of superstardom.

Pitch Per­fect
Three essays look­ing back at the Brit-Asian sen­sa­tion, Bend it Like Beck­ham, on the occa­sion of its 20^th birthday.

The Walk­ing of Peck­ham 123
Rōgan Gra­ham takes a stroll around the haunts of Peck­ham and Brix­ton with Rye Lane direc­tor, Raine Allen-Miller.

On the Wall
A con­fes­sion­al dossier in which a host of LWLies writ­ers tell us about how they dec­o­rat­ed their teenage bed­room walls.

Mia Goth
Mari­na Ash­i­oti talks to one of the most excit­ing and intense actors on the scene about her every­thing-on-the-table turns in Infin­i­ty Pool and Pearl.

Léa Mysius
Emi­ly Maskell meets the direc­tor of olfac­to­ry won­der, The Five Dev­ils, who reflects on mak­ing a film about potions, mem­o­ry and the sense of smell.

Hlynur Pál­ma­son
David Jenk­ins speaks to the Ice­landic direc­tor of the ethno­graph­ic epic, God­land, on cre­at­ing his own myths and how to prop­er­ly record birdsong.

Albert Ser­ra
The loqua­cious Span­ish mae­stro speaks to Caitlin Quin­lan and picks apart the process of his break­through fea­ture of polit­i­cal malaise in the South Seas, Pacifiction.

Davy Chou
The writer/​director of the mag­i­cal Return to Seoul speaks to Han­nah Strong about how the truth is stranger than fiction.

In review

Bran­don Cronenberg’s Infin­i­ty Pool, by Han­nah Strong
Ti West’s Pearl, by David Jenk­ins
Raine Allen-Miller’s Rye Lane, by Cheyenne Bun­sie
Léa Mysius’s The Five Dev­ils, by David Jenk­ins
Tarik Saleh’s Cairo Con­spir­a­cy, by Charles Bramesco
Dominik Moll’s The Night of the 12^th, by Sask­ia Lloyd-Gaiger
Éric Gravel’s Full Time, by David Jenk­ins
Emmanuelle Nicot’s Love Accord­ing to Dal­va, by Alexan­dria Slater
Rodri­go Sorogyen’s The Beasts, by Anton Bitel
Manuela Martelli’s 1976, by Mari­na Ash­i­oti
Hlynur Pálmason’s God­land, by Josh Slater-Williams
Nina Menkes’ Brain­washed: Sex-Pow­er-Cin­e­ma, by Lil­lian Craw­ford
Daniel Goldhaber’s How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Daniel Gold­haber
Mako­to Shinkai’s Suzume, by Ali­cia Had­dick
Albert Serra’s Paci­fic­tion, by David Jenk­ins
Saela David and Anna Rose Holmer’s God’s Crea­tures, by David Jenk­ins
Mayrem Touzani’s The Blue Caf­tan, by Mari­na Ash­i­oti
Felix Van Groeningen’s The Eight Moun­tains, by Rafa Sales Ross
Chei Hayakawa’s Plan 75, by Trevor John­ston
Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul, by Ella Kemp
Mar­ti­ka Ramirez Escobar’s Leonor Will Nev­er Die, by David Jenk­ins
Aman­da Kramer’s Please Baby Please, by Mari­na Ash­i­oti
Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morn­ing, by Sav­ina Petko­va
Sier­ra Pettingill’s Riotsville, USA, by Caitlin Quin­lan
Lola Quivoron’s Rodeo, by Kather­ine McLaughlin

Plus, Matt Turn­er selects six key home ents releas­es for your consideration.

And the first edi­tion of Mari­na Ashioti’s new col­umn Sticky Gold Stars, which will offer a cel­e­bra­tion of the cur­rent LGBTQ+ cin­e­ma. In this maid­en edi­tion, Mari­na reports from the 2023 Berlin Film Festival.

LWLies 98 is avail­able to order online now from our online shop. Become a LWLies Gold Mem­ber or sub­scribe today to make sure you nev­er miss an issue.