The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on 19 January 2023, and was released in cinemas in Australia on 5 October 2023. It won the CinefestOZ Film Prize in September 2023, and was selected as the Australian entry for the Best International Feature Film category for the 2024 Academy Awards.
Plot
Inspired by Niasari's childhood experiences, the story follows an Iranian immigrant woman in Australia who is raising her young daughter as the two live in a women's shelter in Melbourne, while also attempting to divorce from her abusive husband. It takes place during the Nowruz (Persian New Year) holiday period in 1995.[4]
Shayda was written and directed by Noora Niasari. Most of the dialogue is in Farsi. The story is based on Niasari's memories of living at the women's shelter as a child, and features Persian cultures and traditions, including Nowruz (Persian New Year), with its theme of renewal and rebirth.[8]
The film was executive produced by Cate Blanchett[9] via her Dirty Films company,[10] and co-produced by Niasari and Australian filmmaker Vincent Sheehan.[11] Blanchett said in an interview: "Vincent and Noora had been developing Shayda for some time and they brought it to us toward the end of the development process to help secure financing and key cast members... We knew this story was strong and had perspective unlike any Australian film we had seen before. It's an intensely personal and domestic scenario but the story Noora drew out of it, we felt had wider cultural resonances. Noora's short films proved she was a visceral filmmaker with an emotionally rich point of view".[10]
The film features the 1991 Rozalla song "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)", which Niasari grew up with, and said that it "just beautifully exemplifies that sense of a woman having agency", at Shayda's euphoric moment of liberation.[4]
Key to the film is the relationship between mother and daughter Mona, with the two actresses, Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Selina Zahednia (who was cast in Melbourne) bonding in real life and continuing to maintain a connection afterwards.[4]
Release
Shayda had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on 19 January 2023,[12][13][14] where it won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic competition. In February 2023, Sony Pictures Classics acquired distribution rights to the film for North and Latin America, the Benelux countries, eastern Europe, Portugal, the Middle East, and Turkey.[15][16]
Shayda was released in cinemas in Australia by Madman Films[17] on 5 October 2023.[20] The film was released in the United States on 1 March 2024[21] and by Vertigo Releasing in the United Kingdom on 8 March 2024.[1]
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 96 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10.The website's consensus reads: "An understated yet impactful story of female empowerment. Shayda establishes first-time feature filmmaker Noora Niasari as a remarkably assured talent."[22]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 76 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[23]
The film won the CinefestOZ Film Prize Western Australia in September 2023, worth A$100,000.[25][26] The prize is the largest cash film prize in Australia, and one of the largest in the world.[27]
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