28th BIFF Noora Niasari's 'Shayda' is an emotional autobiography on screen

Director Noora Niasari speaks during an event for the Flash Forward section at the 28th Busan Internationl Film Festival (BIFF), Sunday. Courtesy of BIFF

BUSAN ― For Iranian Australian director Noora Niasari, the female-centric drama, “Shayda,” is more than just her first feature film, but a personal journey of telling her family story.

“It was inspired by a personal experience. I was five years old when my mother and I lived in a women's shelter in Australia. And it was a very defining experience and it's a story that's lived inside me since then,” the director said during an interview with The Korea Times at Busan Cinema Center, Sunday.

"When I decided to write the screenplay I asked my mother to write a memoir to fill in the gaps of my memories … And as I wrote the screenplay, it developed its structure and narrative. So it's not autobiographical but is emotionally autobiographical."

"Shayda" tells the story of an Iranian woman in Australia, struggling to regain her freedom after escaping an abusive marriage as she finds refuge in a women's shelter with her six-year-old daughter, Mona.

She files for divorce for a fresh start and freedom with her daughter. But when a court grants her husband visitation rights to see their daughter, Shayda grapples with having to deal with the fear of her coercive spouse, while trying to survive the harsh reality of cultural pressures from her family and establish a sense of normalcy for her child.

The poignant film has been invited to compete at this year’s Busan International Festival for the Flash Forward section.

A scene from the film "Shayda" / Courtesy of BIFF

The film focuses on the women's shelter as a setting. Niasari sought to shine a light on life after domestic violence from a first-person perspective.

“I always wanted to focus it on the shelter; the women's shelter and the experience of life after escaping domestic violence because I hadn't seen that world on screen before,” she said.

"We have a lot of depictions of domestic violence in films, a lot of the time, from a male perspective, not giving insight into the women's journey, how they rebuild their lives, how they find freedom; all of the intricacies of redefining their path. And so that was my focus in the film."

The film closely brings the audience into the mother and daughter’s lives during its 118-minute run. The director said it was crucial for people to intimately resonate with their story as if they were in their shoes. To achieve a more intimate, immersive experience, Niasari even studied the techniques of Alfred Hitchcock to infuse the film with suspense, capturing the constant fear and uncertainty Shayda faces.

“With my cinematographer, we worked a lot to find our language because I wanted the film to be immersive and intimate so that we're only seeing the world through their eyes. Because I think if it was less focused, it would have dissipated a lot of the tension and a lot of the emotion. And so I really wanted to keep the audience inside their experience with the cinematography in all of the choices,” she said.

“For me, it was really important to put the audience in the mind of Shayda and the fear that follows her … That's kind of the reality as well for women in that situation. There's a lot of uncertainty ... and not knowing. He has access to the little girl but she doesn't know is he going to abduct her? Is he going to bring her back? What's going to happen? Why am I in this situation?”

"Shayda" has been invited to compete at this year's BIFF for the Flash Forward section. Courtesy of BIFF

The film, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, has been garnering acclaim globally for its delicate story. It won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition and screened in different international film festivals like Locarno Film Festival.

Niasari shared that although the film is rooted in her Iranian heritage, it still speaks universally with its story about motherhood.

“I feel that audiences have connected very deeply because it's specific in that it's our story, but also it's universal as well because it's about women and about motherhood. It's about a mother wanting to teach her daughter traditions and values and that crosses cultures. And it's about also someone reclaiming her identity, reclaiming her cultural identity beyond the expectations put upon her. So I think these are all really universal things that people have been feeling connected to,” she said.

“I love audiences to have their own take but my intention was to leave the audience with a sense of hope and a deeper understanding of the experience of women escaping domestic violence.”

As the film is inspired by her own childhood, making this movie has been an especially challenging yet rewarding process for Niasari.

“It was really difficult, but there's also been a really healing experience especially sharing it with audiences … basically during the production it was very emotionally psychologically taxing but now in connecting with audiences, the reward has been very profound as well,” the director said.

“There's been a catharsis really because you know I feel in sharing my story other people are able to open up about their experience and create a conversation and that's what I wanted; to start conversations, to raise more awareness, to have people asking questions because the story is beyond us.”