SHAYDA – Review

Shayda (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) flees her abusive husband in Iran, along with her six-year-old daughter Mona (Selina Zahednia), and goes into hiding at an international women’s shelter in Australia, in the moving, semi-autobiographical Australian drama SHAYDA.

Set in the 1990s, SHAYDA is partly based on writer/director Noora Niasari’s own childhood experiences, when her mother fled Iran. Zar Amir Ebrahimi gives a charismatic, emotionally moving performance as Shayda, in a touching, emotionally-powerful drama that follows the mother’s and daughter’s journey. Young Selina Zahednia is a charmer as cute, mischievous Mona, effectively portraying her growth in understanding and maturity as they stay in the shelter. The drama premiered at Sundance in 2023, where it won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic competition, and it was Australia’s official entry for the Oscars.

We first meet the mother and daughter in the airport, where someone from the international women’s shelter is coaching little Mona on what to do if someone tries to lure her on to a plane to return to Iran. It is a chilling introduction to the precarious situation that Mona and her mother Shayda are now in, as Shayda escapes her husband who beat her and has become increasingly oppressive and brutal.

Shayda chose to flee to Australia because she and her husband had attended college there, until the Iranian government pulled her scholarship. Kindly social worker Joyce (Leah Purcell) runs the international women’s shelter where the mother and daughter go to hide, along with other women, mostly from an array of other nations. Secrecy is essential, as the men the women have fled have been known to either try to kidnap their children or attack the women. The secrecy extends to anyone the women may know, as they never know who may give away the location, intentionally or not, which would endanger all the women.

While in hiding in Australia, Shayda starts the process to get a divorce from her husband Hossein (Osamah Sami), which is no simple thing. Meanwhile, she tries to help her young daughter, who is struggling to adjust to life in the shelter. Homesick young Mona doesn’t understand why they can’t just go home, although the six-year-old does have some understanding that daddy hurt mommy. Mona longs to return to her own house in Iran, her own room and a yard to play in, instead of the cramped shelter where she shares a single room with her mother. Shayda tries to cheer her up, encouraging the little girl’s imaginative drawings, or entertaining her by singing or dancing with her to an exercise program on TV.

While Joyce, the woman who runs the shelter, is kind, not all the other women there are friendly, and Shayda does encounter some racism. The situation becomes more tense when Shayda’s husband Hossein follows them to Australia, and even gets the Australian authorities to grant him some visitation rights with his daughter, which forces Shayda to come up with a way to comply while keeping their location secret.

As the Persian New Year approaches, Shayda hears about a celebration planned by other Iranians nearby, and Mona begs to go. Shayda has to weigh the risk against homesick Mona’s emotional well-being.

Writer/director Noora Niasari does a fine job depicting the tight-rope that Shayda must walk to both care for her daughter and keep them both safe from her estranged abusive husband.

Zar Amir Ebrahimi is impressive as Shayda, and really carries the film on the strength of her appealing, nuanced performance. Osamah Sami does a nice job as husband Hossein, turning on the charm with his estranged wife and promising to change, but also pumping his daughter for information while trying to spoil her to win her affection. Young Selina Zahednia effectively portrays a girl who feels conflicted and caught between her parents.

The film is shot with a pared-down realism appropriate for the drama story. Flashes of color and energy come from little Mona’s artwork, and in the festivities and preparations around the Persian New Year, a celebration of renewal and new beginnings that mirrors the changing lives of mother and daughter.

SHAYDA is a touching drama about a mother and daughter journeying to freedom and a new life in a new land, anchored by an appealing, layered performance by Zar Amir Ebrahimi as the lead character.

SHAYDA, in English and Persian with English subtitles, opens Friday, Mar. 22, in theaters.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars