Opening this year’s Melbourne international film festival, the Iranian-Australian director’s debut follows an Iranian mother and daughter as they seek refuge in an Australian women’s shelter
Zar Amir Ebrahimi as Shayda and Selina Zahednia as Mona in Shayda. The film will be released in Australia on 28 September.Zar Amir Ebrahimi as Shayda and Selina Zahednia as Mona in Shayda. The film will be released in Australia on 28 September.
Opening this year’s Melbourne international film festival, Noora Niasari’s debut follows an Iranian mother and daughter as they seek refuge in an Australian women’s shelterand has opened this year’s Melbourne international film festival, is a deeply engrossing, gradually escalating drama about a mother and daughter rebuilding their lives during a stay in a women’s shelter. It’s a film with airtight verisimilitude: you don’t doubt its authenticity for a moment.
Shayda’s fear that Hossein will leave Australia with their child is captured in the opening scene, when Mona’s taken to an airport and told to familiarise herself with the setting. This is brisk, compact writing, broadly establishing the central predicament while naturally evoking the question of what happens next, all of it unfolding in a way that feels totally germane to this world.
Shayda shows the power of a focused personal narrative. This film captures one woman’s circumstances but it’s clear, without the director applying highlighter pen, that this is tragically the story of many women.Each week our editors select five of the most interesting, entertaining and thoughtful reads published by Guardian Australia and our international colleagues.
Shayda’s tucked in aspect ratio has a psychologically condensing effect, concentrating the drama. It continues a recent trend of first-time Australian film-makers who’ve eschewed the traditional widescreen for a more boxed-in look. Other examples including Goran Stolevski’s) often homes in on Ebrahimi’s face, a well of feeling and energy. Niasari regularly resists cutting away, letting these shots breathe, turning images into moments.
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