Nimra Bucha as Raheela and Priya Kansara as Ria Khan.
NIDA MANZOOR IS the creative genius behind We Are Lady Parts, Channel 4’s off-kilter comedy series about a female, Muslim punk-rock band based in East London — ashow that has rightly earned widespread acclaim. But before Manzoor conceived that concept, she found another idea taking shape. “I had this urge to put someone like myself, a brown woman, at the centre of a genre piece and allow that character to just go nuts,” the British-Pakistani writer-director tells Empire. Manzoor has long had an affinity for action movies, idolising everyone from the Wachowskis to Jackie Chan, so it made perfect sense to set about putting her own spin on one. “I wanted to make a genre movie that would look at the pressure women in society feel about how to hold our space and have agency.”