Australian-Iranian writer/director Noora Niasari’s feature debut Shayda, which premiered at Sundance and has opened this year’s Melbourne international film festival, is a deeply engrossing, gradually escalating drama about a mother and daughter rebuilding their lives during a stay in a women’s shelter. It’s a film with airtight verisimilitude: you don’t doubt its authenticity for a moment. Tension is skilfully sustained throughout and the drama has a pressurising effect, the air intensifying in a long, slow rise towards crescendo, Niasari never quite releasing the pressure valve and never taking the easy route.
Central to the film is a faultless leading performance from Zar Amir Ebrahimi as the titular protagonist, who attempts to flee an abusive husband, Hossein (Osamah Sami), soon to finish studying medicine and intending to return home to Iran. Shayda has different plans and files for divorce, seeking refuge in a shelter with their six-year-old daughter Mona (Selina Zahednia).
