Shayda follows a young Iranian mother named Shayda (Zahra Amir Ebrahimi) who takes refuge in an Australian women’s shelter with her 6-year-old daughter Mona (Selina Zahednia) as she seeks a divorce from her estranged husband Hossein (Osamah Sami) during the two weeks of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Shayda tries to find her path to freedom through logistical and cultural pressures.
Shayda is at its most emotionally impactful and resonant when delving into the psychological toll that abusive relationships have on the abused. In its depiction of Shayda’s ordeal, we see the emotional spectrum that she experiences while trying to free herself and protect her daughter, from the general fear she has surrounding the uncertainty of what may happen to the paranoia about being discovered by her husband or someone in Australia’s small Iranian community who may alert her husband to her whereabouts. Shayda is constantly looking over her shoulder when she ventures out to the local Persian grocer to pick up small items in the event she may be recognized or her husband may spot her. The mental struggle and toll that she goes through is portrayed with convincing agony by Ebrahimi, making for a visceral emotional experience for the audience as we walk alongside the weary mother. Shayda effectively portrays the tumult involved with ending an abusive relationship by methodically the audience through the process with the character so that the work involved is made clear.
What the film also shows in an effective manner is the added cultural nuance to Shayda’s story as an immigrant in a foreign land. As previously mentioned, Shayda’s paranoia emanates not just from her husband, but from the added pressure of community judgement, including their families. Shayda is constantly put in positions where she must explain why she is leaving the patriarch of her family and splitting up their unit to go it alone. Some in her community refuse to even be in the same room with her while she attempts divorce while others seek to aid her husband in regaining control over her. The depiction of the cultural factors in Shayda’s divorce add another layer of danger within the story, but also provide an additional voice and perspective in the conversation surrounding domestic abuse. Seeking refuge is made tougher for victims of abuse when unique cultural barriers prevent them from making a clean break in addition to the typical factors abusive relationships contain. Shayda does well in its portrayal of such realities.
Image: Sony Pictures Classics
