Sometimes it’s the littlest details that reveal the level of care and attention layered into a film. Like the Blossom-like floral hat worn by Selina Zahednia’s young Mona in Melbourne International Film Festival opener Shayda, which gently places us in a specific moment, even if you blink and miss the title card announcing that it’s 1995.
First playing in January at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the audience prize, and having its Australian premiere at MIFF last night, Shayda is a small film with a big impact. The debut feature of Iranian-Australian filmmaker Noora Niasari is a deeply affecting, semi-autobiographical retelling of her own story. Mona is a young Niasari, with Holy Spider lead Zar Amir Ebrahimi standing in for her mother in the title role. They find themselves in limbo, taken in by a Melbourne women’s shelter run by actor and fellow filmmaker Leah Purcell as the stoic Joyce.
