matrix for the first time i was 11 thinking wow and that just opened the door to all this hong kong kung fu that film particularly spoke to methen you look to films like kill bill i just love those action scenes and theres a continuity theres yuen wooping whos the fight choreographer on kill bill who also did the matrix and when i realized that i started looking into his cinema as well jackie chan movies were what i grew up on for me hes a master of combining comedy and action rhythm and specificity and using his environments which really informed how we were conceiving of the action especially for the sisters fights what can we use in a girls bedroom to make the fight feel really grounded in the space it feels like the fight is tailored to the spaceanother more surprising source of inspiration was raw the 2016 body horror from french filmmaker julia ducournau its got the best sister relationship that ive seen in cinema and this film was one that i was always mentioning to execs as i was pitching polite society this is what the sisters need to feel like manzoor explainsalthough the movie also grapples with growing pains bodily autonomy and cultural norms the relationship between ria and lena is undoubtedly the cornerstone of polite society it was important then that kansara had great chemistry with her onscreen sister and the pair are electric in their scenes together i was nervous about it because i hadnt met ritu before we were cast she explains but it was so easy we really didnt even have to do very much i remember the first rehearsal she bought me a little present and we had a great chat and then we would hang out a few times before we were filming and we had lots of rehearsals as well but honestly it felt so natural it didnt really feel like work at allimage credit universal picturesbefore manzoor made polite society she helmed a project about a different kind of sisterhood we are lady parts a sixpart comedy series that aired on channel 4 and peacock in 2021 and has since been renewed for a second season it follows an allfemale allmuslim punk band in london a mismatched group of 20somethings who bond over their love of music manzoor wrote and directed all six episodes and polite society feels like a very natural progression from her work on the small screen getting to make we are lady parts really helped me find my voice my tone aesthetic the way i like to work she explains i actually feel so fortunate polite society didnt happen until it did because i felt like i had the skills to pull it off finally i had so many of the same heads of department that id worked with on lady parts and it was a real collaboration and trust there i felt like i was in the best