Shayda

Sep 28, 2023

1h 58m

★ 6.7

A love letter to mothers and daughters everywhere

Overview

Shayda, a young Iranian woman living in Australia, finds refuge in a women’s shelter with her 6-year-old daughter, Mona. Having fled her husband, Hossein, and filed for divorce, Shayda struggles to maintain normalcy for Mona. Buoyed by the approach of Nowruz, she tries to forge a fresh start with new and unfettered freedoms. But when a judge grants Hossein visitation rights, he reenters their life, stoking Shayda’s fear that he’ll attempt to take Mona back to Iran.

Genres

Drama

Production Companies

Dirty Films

Screen Australia

Origma 45

VicScreen

MIFF Premiere Fund

HanWay Films

The 51 Fund

Parandeh Pictures

Shayda Trailers

Cast

Shayda

Zar Amir Ebrahimi

Mona

Selina Zahednia

Joyce

Leah Purcell

Jillian Nguyen

Hossein

Osamah Sami

Farhad

Mojean Aria

Elly

Rina Mousavi

Renee

Lucinda Armstrong Hall

Cathy

Bev Killick

Night Club Member (uncredited)

Jack Bonser

Lara

Eve Morey

Jill

Alanna Ha Quach

The story takes place in Haifa, Israel, in 1979, during three days before the Shabbat. A young woman trying to raise three children, work from home, and observe the strict Moroccan traditions of her family finds herself at constant odds with her husband and her brothers, who want her to stay married and leave behind the notions of being loved and free.

6.6

Something's Gotta Give

Dec 12, 2003

When perpetually single, aging music industry exec Harry Sanborn, and his latest trophy girlfriend, Marin, arrive at her mother's beach house in the Hamptons, they find that her mother, playwright Erica Barry, also plans to stay for the weekend. Erica is scandalized by the relationship and Harry's sexist ways. But when Harry has a heart attack while there, and the doctor prescribes bedrest, his only option is to stay at the Barry home. Left in the care of Erica and his doctor, a love triangle starts to take shape.

5.7

Glue

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A teenage summer in a small town in the desert, a dysfunctional family, a rock band, a can full of glue, two boys, one girl, loads of tongue kisses, dry heat, wind in Patagonia, existential angst... A teenage story in the middle of nowhere.

8.6

Our Season

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Bok-ja is granted a special vacation after her death, which allows her to go see her daughter, Jin-joo, a university professor living abroad. Unlike her expectation, Bok-ja finds Jin-joo living in her old house running a local diner and becomes frustrated with questions that she is unable to ask. After spending time alongside Jin-joo, Bok-ja realizes that her daughter is struggling with the unresolved feelings about her, and tries to find a way to show her sincere feelings that she had never shared before.

6.8

Or (My Treasure)

Jun 29, 2004

Or shoulders a lot: she's 17 or 18, a student, works evenings at a restaurant, recycles cans and bottles for cash, and tries to keep her mother Ruthie from returning to streetwalking in Tel Aviv. Ruthie calls Or "my treasure," but Ruthie is a burden. She's just out of hospital, weak, and Or has found her a job as a house cleaner. The call of the quick money on the street is tough for Ruthie to ignore. Or's emotions roil further when the mother of the youth she's in love with comes to the flat to warn her off. With love fading and Ruthie perhaps beyond help, Or's choices narrow.

6.4

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5.4

Jinn

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Summer is a carefree teenage girl whose world is turned upside down when her mother abruptly converts to Islam and becomes a different person. At first resistant to the faith, she begins to reevaluate her identity after becoming attracted to a Muslim classmate, crossing the thin line between physical desire and piety.

7.0

Papa und Mama

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10.0

HARLEM FRAGMENTS

Invalid Date

Harlem Fragments is an Afro-futurist scrapbook storytelling of a Harlem Black family's beautiful destruction during the 2008 recession. A natural disaster so mesmerizing you can't look away from the tragedy. Based on true events- The film explores the haunting societal pressures of achieving the Black American dream, told in the POV of 10 year old TJ revisiting his family's home that's up for sale. By empowering this Black boy in this film with the agency to imagine, TJ, through his own journey, finds a way to process and come to terms with his family's divorce. It's important for every Black child out there enduring the same foreign emotions to know that it's okay to feel them, and affirm that there is a future trajectory forward out of the initial destruction.

5.6

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Bounced from her job, Erin Grant needs money if she's to have any chance of winning back custody of her child. But, eventually, she must confront the naked truth: to take on the system, she'll have to take it all off. Erin strips to conquer, but she faces unintended circumstances when a hound dog of a Congressman zeroes in on her and sharpens the shady tools at his fingertips, including blackmail and murder.

7.1

White Oleander

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A teenager journeys through a series of foster homes after her mother goes to prison for committing a crime of passion.

6.7

Thirteen

Aug 20, 2003

When 13-year-old Tracy befriends Evie, the most popular girl in school, her life is turned upside down as Evie introduces her to a world of sex, drugs, and money. But it isn’t long before Tracy’s new lifestyle begins to take a heavy toll on her and her family.

7.1

Terms of Endearment

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6.1

The Souvenir

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A shy but ambitious film student falls into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship with a charismatic but untrustworthy older man.

6.5

The Souvenir: Part II

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In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.

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4.2

La malcasada

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A silent film centering around bull fighting and general melodrama, which also serves nicely as a documentary with 'cameos' by many Spanish personalities of the time.

5.0

A Woman in Flames

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Eva, an upper-class housewife, frustratedly leaves her arrogant husband and decides to enter the call girl business. She lets Yvonne, a prostitute, teach her the basics and both set out for prey together, until Eva starts an affair with Chris, who turns out to be a call boy, as well. Consequently, she moves into his penthouse, large enough for both to offer their services separately.

6.4

Nowhere to Run

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5.3

Solo for Clarinet

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