Noora Niasari was only five when she and her mother moved into a women’s shelter in Australia, fleeing domestic violence. That experience is the heart of “Shayda,” Niasari’s debut feature starring Zar ...

Noora Niasari was editing “Shayda” when the world changed — again — for Iranians. It was September 2022, and Mahsa Amini had just died in police custody, igniting the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement ...

Hope and fear vie for prominence throughout Noora Niasari’s debut feature “Shayda,” in which Zar Amir Ebrahimi (“Holy Spider”) enthralls as a Persian mother living in Australia who takes refuge in a ...

Shayda (Zar Amir-Ebrahimi) is a young Iranian mother living in Australia in 1995 with her 6-year-old daughter, Mona (Selina Zahednia). She fled to a women’s shelter and filed for divorce from her ...

Cate Blanchett is one of the executive producers of a debut feature starring Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who toplined ‘Holy Spider.’ By Sheri Linden Senior Copy Editor/Film Critic Early scenes are thick with ...

Sony Pictures Classics has secured distribution rights to “Shayda,” which won the Audience Award at Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition last month. The distributor holds all media rights in ...

It’s a Sunday evening in London in early February and two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is freshly changed from an award show when she logs onto a Zoom with Noora Niasari, the writer and director ...

Noora Niasari’s highly personal debut tells a timely tale of domestic abuse and women’s struggle for autonomy. The actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi’s eyes are an arresting contradiction. In “Shayda,” dark ...

Zar Amir Ebrahimi as Shayda and and Selina Zahednia as Mona in SHAYDA Photo credit: Jane Zhang. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. Shayda (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) flees her abusive husband in Iran, along ...