Director Noora Niasari, actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi and executive producer Cate Blanchett will attend the screening.
Locarno Film Festival will close on Saturday, August 12, 2023, with the European premiere of Iranian-Australian director Noora Niasari’s debut film Shayda.
The film also stars Leah Purcell, Jillian Nguyen, Mojean Aria, Selina Zahednia, and Rina Mousavi.
The 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival will run from August 2-12, 2023.
Executive produced by Cate Blanchett, Shayda stars Zar Amir Ebrahimi. Locarno will also screen a second, surprise title that touches on the history of cinema personally selected by Locarno festival president Marco Solari. Blanchett and Ebrahimi will attend Locarno together with Niasari.
Blanchett is an executive producer of the movie through Dirty Films, the production company she runs alongside Andrew Upton and Coco Francini.
On August 12, Blanchett will also moderate a conversation between Niasari and Ebrahimi on the theme of “Iranian women and Iranian cinema” at the GranRex Cinema in Locarno at 5:15 pm.
The film, which is described as a “love letter to mothers and daughters everywhere,” sees Amir-Ebrahimi star as Shayda, a brave Iranian mother who finds refuge in an Australian women’s shelter with her six-year-old daughter (played by Selina Zahednia) after fleeing an abusive relationship. Based on Niasari’s own mother, who fled an arranged marriage to raise her daughter in Australia, Shayda takes place over the Persian New Year, when the mother-daughter duo take solace in Nowruz rituals and new beginnings, but when her estranged husband reenters their lives, Shayda’s path to freedom is jeopardised.
