‘I wouldn’t do it again’: The true story behind this gut-wrenching Australian film

Noora Niasari didn’t have to look far for the tale at the heart of Shayda, which opens the Melbourne International Film Festival on Thursday.

“The story of the film has been inside me since I was five years old,” she says. “It was inevitable that I would make this film, whether it was my first film or my third film. And I am somewhat relieved that I’ve gotten it out of the way because it was incredibly hard.”

Zar Amir Ebrahimi as Shayda and Selina Zahednia as Mona in Noora Niasari’s debut feature Shayda, which opens the 2023 Melbourne International Film Festival.Credit: Jane Zhang

Niasari’s debut feature focuses on an Iranian woman called Shayda (French-Iranian actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who won the best actress award in Cannes last year for her role in Holy Spider) and her daughter, Mona (Selina Zahednia, who was six when the film was made) as they hole up in a women’s refuge after Shayda’s medical student husband (played by Ali’s Wedding co-writer and star Osamah Sami) sexually assaults her.

It’s a fictionalised telling, and shot in Melbourne (though the city is never identified), but the film draws heavily on Niasari’s own experiences with her mother in a Brisbane refuge in the mid-1990s.

“It’s definitely emotionally true to our experience, but there are fictional elements that are very much about creating a cinematic experience for the audience,” she says.

Niasari, now in her early 30s, was five when she and her mother moved into the women’s shelter for what was meant to be days, maybe weeks at most. Eight months later, they finally moved out and into a home of their own.

Noora Niasari, photographed at Mon Ami Restaurant in Fitzroy, one of the locations she used in the film. Credit: Chris Hopkins

“It’s a long time, and it’s very rare for that to happen,” she says. “But because my mum didn’t have residency status, or any income or family here, we were in a very tough situation. So, we stayed there far longer than expected.”

Understandably, Niasari says the experience was “really formative”. And once she ditched architecture for filmmaking and traded documentary shorts for a stab at a narrative feature, it was always likely to demand revisiting.

But doing so took its toll. “I had therapists every step of the way through the writing process,” she says. “I underestimated the emotional and psychological challenges. I wouldn’t do it again, I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody, but it was also a very cathartic and healing experience for myself and my mother to bring this story to life.”

Although it is unavoidably anchored in trauma, Shayda isn’t overwhelmingly dark. What most resonates is the mother’s determination to make her daughter feel safe and loved, to experience normal moments of happiness and fun despite their circumstances, and to remain connected to the rich heritage of Iran, even as some in the expat community judge Shayda harshly for having left her husband.

“The focus is really the joy and the light that she finds, the vulnerability she finds, overcoming the darkness and not being defined by it,” Niasari says. “That was always inherent to our experience, and to the film as a whole.”

Keeping it light on set wasn’t easy, but when one of your stars has only just started primary school it’s essential. “My No.1 priority was protecting Selina. The whole production had to be managed in a way to allow for that.”

That meant keeping many of the details of the story hidden from Zahednia, who was born in Iran and lives in Melbourne. “All she knew was that her character is living with her mum in this house and her parents are not together. And that’s about it, really.”

Has she seen the finished film?

“No, it’s not appropriate for children. But I did cut together a child-safe version of the film, about 15 minutes of it,” Niasari says.

“We showed it to her family at her house and she was really excited to see herself on screen but it was about eight months after shooting, and she had kind of forgotten about it already. Kids are so present they forget about the past, unless it’s a really difficult experience.”

In January, Shayda had its first public screenings at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the audience prize. Immediately after the Melbourne International Film Festival opening, Niasari will fly to France to scout locations for her second film, Raya, and then on to Switzerland, where Shayda will close the Locarno Film Festival in front of a crowd of 8000 or so.

Despite the darkness of its premise, there’s much light and joy in Shayda.Credit: Madman

After that, she’ll wing her way back home for a few more Q&A sessions at Melbourne International Film Festival.

“It’s a whirlwind. I’m very much living out of suitcases for the next couple of months, but it’s super exciting,” she says.

“I’m really grateful the film is resonating with so many different kinds of audiences,” Niasari adds. “It really speaks to the fact it’s a universal experience, this mother-daughter story. It’s beyond us, it’s more than us - and that’s where the catharsis happens.”

Shayda opens MIFF on Thursday August 3 and screens throughout the festival in Melbourne and regional venues. Details: miff.com.au. The Age is a festival media partner.

Age subscribers can get 50 per cent off tickets to the Melbourne International Film Festival*. Discounted tickets are limited. Click here to get your tickets now.

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