I return to Sundance after 2 years off for my annual brush with culture... though not USA popular culture. Living in rural southern Utah is nice, but cultural stimulation is lacking. I seek out mind-expanding, consciousness-expanding, WOKE films that help me grok what is happening in the rest of the world. This year, I started with 2 films from Australia – pretty exotic, I hear you say…

Sundance says: WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION

Shayda

An Iranian woman living in Australia, Shayda finds refuge in a women’s shelter with her frightened 6-year-old daughter, Mona. Having fled her husband, Hossein, and filed for divorce, Shayda struggles to maintain normalcy for Mona. Buoyed by the approach of Nowruz (Persian New Year), she tries to forge a fresh start with new and unfettered freedoms. But when a judge grants Hossein visitation rights, he reenters their life, stoking Shayda’s fear that he’ll attempt to take Mona back to Iran.

Drawn from personal experiences, Iranian-Australian filmmaker Noora Niasari’s powerful debut feature is a beautifully crafted, poetic vérité portrayal of courage and compassion, anchored by a heart-rending performance by Zar Amir Ebrahimi (2022 Cannes’ best actress award winner for Holy Spider). Ebrahimi captures the vulnerability and confliction, but also the radiant soul of an Iranian woman who boldly reclaims her human rights: to divorce her husband, keep her child, and dress as she chooses.

Tom says: Five Stars out of Five.

I thought blurbs were supposed to over-sell the film; this one definitely under-sells it! Bring a supply of Kleenex, as they say…

The film is based on the real life of Ms. Niasari’s escape/settlement in Australia, and it is visceral. The camera work is close-up and personal; I was fully immersed, my brain responding like it was a documentary. Set in 1995, there are indications of how far we have come: when the police come to the door after she has been beaten up, the police are like “well, if we arrested him he would be deported, and you would have no way of supporting yourself, so you don’t really want to press charges do you?”  I’m sure the Australian police no longer say such things, right?  [/sarcasm].

We find Shayda and Mona arriving at a woman’s shelter in an unnamed Australian city. Shayda is in contact with the Iranian diaspora community in her town, but alas also is her husband. She finds friends, but also disapproval as divorce is not accepted in Iranian culture, even for those who have left Iran. The courts are not helpful. What is helpful is the staff and other women at the shelter.

It all ends up working out (no surprise) but it is a rather bleak story. The saving grace is the women at the shelter all trying to put their broken lives back together and supporting each other. The portrait of Iranian-Australian culture is also a major player in the film; all the actors being drawn from that community. (Essentially an Iranian film set in Australia.)

Five stars. Lots of tears.

Shayda on the Sundance Festival Website