Shayda

Turkey Premiere

DCP / Renkli Color / 117’

English, Farsi With Turkish And English Subtitles

Australia, 2023

Director
Noora Niasari

Cast
Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Osamah Sami, Mojean Aria, Jillian Nguyen, Rina Mousavi, Selına Zahednia, Leah Purcell

Awards

2023 Sundance Film Festival, Audience Award

2023 Locarno International Film Festival, Audience Award

2023 Melbourne International Film Festival, Bright Horizons Award

Australia’s 2024 Oscar nominee, “Shayda,” will be the closing film at the 13th International Crime and Punishment Film Festival, meeting the audience for the first time in Turkey.

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 her daughter. 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).