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 re-enters 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.
Filmmaker's statement
When I was five years old, my first experience of freedom was inside an Australian women’s shelter, living alongside other women and children seeking a life without fear. Despite being a world away from our family in Iran, my mother taught me how to speak Farsi, how to celebrate Nowruz, how to Persian dance, read poetry, and above all, she taught me about the resilience and strength of Iranian women.
Women like my mother were ostracized for seeking basic human rights. The right to ask for divorce, to have custody over their children, to choose how they dress, to dance in the streets, to let their hair flow in the wind and exhale. That’s all my mother wanted, these basic freedoms, for herself and for her daughter. She found these freedoms for us in Australia but our nostalgia for our homeland never ceases.
I never imagined a day would come where a Women-led Revolution would take hold in Iran as it is today. I am in awe of the millions of mothers and daughters fighting for these freedoms. This film is dedicated to my mother and the brave women and girls of Iran.
Noora Niasari — writer, director, producer