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 ...

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 ...

“Shayda” follows a mother and daughter living in a women’s shelter. The mother — Shayda herself, played by the lauded Zar Amir Ebrahimi — is in the throes of a turbulent divorce from her abusive ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

A 5-year-old Iranian child and her mother find refuge in an Australian women’s shelter while on the run from an abusive ex in Noora Niasari’s Shayda. It’s a very personal story for Niasari because she ...

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 ...