In anticipation of Nida Manzoor’s thrilling masterpiece Polite Society, premiering this weekend, we speak with the writer/director herself about her career and the messages she aims to convey with her debut feature film.

Nida Manzoor is the creator of the hit Peacock/Channel 4 series We Are Lady Parts, which broke barriers for Black and brown Muslim women in popular media. Now, she’s making her feature film debut with her thrilling masterpiece Polite Society, a genre-bending comedy action film that centers two Pakistani-British sisters, Ria (Priya Kansara) and Lena (Ritu Arya) Khan, as they deal with the pressures of settling down to the expectations they have versus reaching for their artistic dreams. As Lena finds herself engaged, with a furious Ria refusing to accept it, both sisters find far more than either of them bargained for.

In anticipation of the film’s release, we were delighted to speak with Manzoor on her creative process for the film. We discussed her impetus to create these groundbreaking stories for South Asian and Muslim women, other projects she aims to get off the ground, and a much-anticipated update on the production of the second season of We Are Lady Parts. You can check out our entire conversation below:

You can watch Polite Society out in theaters now.