On the surface, this is a story of a woman trying to leave an abusive marriage, but it shines a light on the insidiousness of domestic violence and its roots in patriarchy.
Filmmaker Noora Niasari (in her first feature) rarely looks away from the enigmatic mother and daughter at the centre of the story. The eponymous, Shayda (Zar Amir-Ebrahimi who was so good in Holy Spider (2022)) and her young daughter Mona (newcomer Selina Zahednia) are in a women’s shelter in a non-descript Australian suburb in the 90s. Run by indomitable mother hen, Joyce (Leah Purcell), the shelter houses a cluster of women and children, all adrift and suffering from the isolation that comes with fleeing intimate partner violence.
For Shayda, the immediate fear is that her husband, Hossain (an unrecognisable Osamah Sami) will take Mona back to Iran, a place where she has no power and few rights. As the story unfolds, we see that the more significant danger is that he will do harm to her, an action that would be seen by many in his community as being reasonable considering her lack of obedience and decorum.
What elevates this story is the Iranian culture woven throughout. Shayda celebrates the Iranian New Year, even though it is autumn in Australia, emphasising her sense of dislocation from home. I watched it with an audience of Iranians, which always makes it so much more enjoyable as they laughed quickly and often to the warm humour sprinkled throughout the film. Both Amir-Ebrahimi and Zahednia do a remarkable job of holding our attention and giving depth to the plight of so many families.
The run time is perhaps a tad long – there felt like a repetition of some messages – but it does a good job of showing the complexity of battling the Australian Family Court system, two very different cultures and the precariousness and circuitous path of leaving an abusive relationship.
Director: Noora Niasari
Origin: Australia (2023)
Language: English, Farsi with English subtitles
Have you seen this film? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
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