Movie Review: An Iranian woman and her daughter flee abuse in moving indie ‘Shayda’ | Hollywood
Noora Niasari’s delicately moving “ Shayda ” puts the viewer in the shoes of an Iranian woman in Australia living in a women’s shelter with her 6-year-old daughter. HT Image The violence happens before we enter the story, and yet actor Zar Amir Ebrahimi’s face and body tells us everything we need to know. Whatever bruises might have been there are gone, but the pain and trauma is palpable. We understand immediately that she is terrified of her husband, of what he’s done and of what he might do, especially as she begins a process that would have been unthinkable in Iran: divorce. We’re introduced to Shayda (Ebrahimi) and Mona (a heartbreaking film debut for young actor Selina Zahednia) as they attempt to act out what the child should do if her father tries to flee the country with her. It is tense and overwhelming, a delicate dance of conveying danger and urgency without explicitly saying so. “Shayda” is the directorial debut of Niasari, who based it on her own experiences. She was the young …