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 with her six-year-old daughter Mona (Selina Zahednia), and goes into hiding at an international women’s shelter in Australia, in the moving, semi-autobiographical Australian drama SHAYDA.
Set in the 1990s, SHAYDA is partly based on writer/director Noora Niasari’s own childhood experiences, when her mother fled Iran. Zar Amir Ebrahimi gives a charismatic, emotionally moving performance as Shayda, in a touching, emotionally-powerful drama that follows the mother’s and daughter’s journey. Young Selina Zahednia is a charmer as cute, mischievous Mona, effectively portraying her growth in understanding and maturity as they stay in the shelter. The drama premiered at Sundance in 2023, where it won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic competition, and it was Australia’s official entry for the Oscars.
We first meet the mother and daughter in the airport, where someone from the international women’s shelter is coaching little Mona on what to do if someone tries to lure her on to a plane to return to Iran. It is a chilling introduction to the precarious situation that Mona and her mother Shayda are now in, as Shayda escapes her husband who beat her and has become increasingly oppressive and brutal.
Shayda chose to flee to Australia because she and her husband had attended college there, until the Iranian government pulled her scholarship. Kindly social worker Joyce (Leah Purcell) runs the international women’s shelter where the mother and daughter go to hide, along with other women, mostly from an array of other nations. Secrecy is essential, as the men the women have fled have been known to either try to kidnap their children or attack the women. The secrecy extends to anyone the women may know, as they never know who may give away the location, intentionally or not, which would endanger all the women.
While in hiding in Australia, Shayda starts the process to get a divorce from her husband Hossein (Osamah Sami), which is no simple thing. Meanwhile, she tries to help her young daughter, who is struggling to adjust to life in the shelter. Homesick young Mona doesn’t understand why they can’t just go home, although the six-year-old does have some understanding that daddy hurt mommy. Mona longs to return to her own house in Iran, her own room and a yard to play in, instead of the cramped shelter where she shares a single room with her mother. Shayda tries to cheer her up, encouraging the little girl’s imaginative drawings, or entertaining her by singing or dancing with her to an exercise program on TV.
While Joyce, the woman who runs the shelter, is kind, not all the other women there are friendly, and Shayda does encounter some racism. The situation becomes more tense when Shayda’s husband Hossein follows them to Australia, and even gets the Australian authorities to grant him some visitation rights with his daughter, which forces Shayda to come up with a way to comply while keeping their location secret.
As the Persian New Year approaches, Shayda hears about a celebration planned by other Iranians nearby, and Mona begs to go. Shayda has to weigh the risk against homesick Mona’s emotional well-being.
Writer/director Noora Niasari does a fine job depicting the tight-rope that Shayda must walk to both care for her daughter and keep them both safe from her estranged abusive husband.
Zar Amir Ebrahimi is impressive as Shayda, and really carries the film on the strength of her appealing, nuanced performance. Osamah Sami does a nice job as husband Hossein, turning on the charm with his estranged wife and promising to change, but also pumping his daughter for information while trying to spoil her to win her affection. Young Selina Zahednia effectively portrays a girl who feels conflicted and caught between her parents.
The film is shot with a pared-down realism appropriate for the drama story. Flashes of color and energy come from little Mona’s artwork, and in the festivities and preparations around the Persian New Year, a celebration of renewal and new beginnings that mirrors the changing lives of mother and daughter.
SHAYDA is a touching drama about a mother and daughter journeying to freedom and a new life in a new land, anchored by an appealing, layered performance by Zar Amir Ebrahimi as the lead character.
SHAYDA, in English and Persian with English subtitles, opens Friday, Mar. 22, in theaters.
Layla Mohammadi as LEILA, Niousha Noor as SHIRIN in THE PERSIAN VERSION. Photo credit: Yiget Eken. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
Growing up with a foot in two cultures can be a tricky experience, so why not turn it into a comedy? THE PERSIAN VERSION is writer/director Maryam Keshavars’ semi-autobiographical comedy/family drama with a heart, that sets out to do just that. THE PERSIAN VERSION is more irreverently, laugh-out-loud funny than you might expect, but it also contains a moving story about the director’s mother, which almost could have made an epic drama on its own.
The main character in THE PERSIAN VERSION, Leila (Layla Mohammadi), describes herself as too American for Iran and too Iranian for America. American-born but growing up in a very Iranian immigrant family of all boys, with her as the sole daughter, Leila was the disrupter of expectations from the start. Leila doesn’t really get along with her traditional mother Shireen (Niousha Noor) who is dismayed by her daughter, a filmmaker and a free-spirited lesbian, who is rebellious and pretty thoroughly American.
The film has three parts, one in which Leila describes growing up split between “her two countries” and about being anything but the quiet obedient daughter her traditional parents expected, as well as her family of crazy brothers with divergent temperaments. The second half is devoted to her mother’s surprising success story and what really prompted them to leave Iran. And finally, events bring the whole crazy but loving family together.
Throughout the film, Leila narrates her own story, sometimes speaking directly to the camera, which Layla Mohammadi pulls off with both biting humor and much appeal. The first portion of the film tells us about who Leila is and about her rebellious, tomboy childhood. Her mother had longer for a sweet, girly daughter with whom she could share things, so she has been pretty exasperated with the wild daughter actually she got.
Leila’s traditional parents immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1960s, where Leila and some of her brothers were born in Brooklyn. Yet the family actually spent long stretches of time visiting grandparents “back home” in Iran while Leila was growing up. As a curious, rebellious child, Leila was the one who smuggled in forbidden American music and also organized also-forbidden dance parties to Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” in the family’s inner courtyard, and other things not considered proper for an Iranian Muslim girl. Leila was even in Iran long enough to attend school there, where schoolmates teased her for being American, while back in the U.S. she was teased for being Iranian.
Leila calls the two countries her parents, like a sort of mixed marriage – until they got divorced. That “divorce” was the Islamic Revolution and Iranian hostage crisis, after the storming of the American embassy in the late ’70s. There was no going back then.
Leila’s father was a doctor but faced obstacles in making a good enough living to support his large family. When a health crisis strikes him, the burden to support the large family is shifted to her mother, who through hard work and determination, found business success.
When the film shifts to the mother’s story, and particularly to events in Iran, things get more dramatic yet director Maryam Keshavarz keeps us hooked on this family tale with unexpected twists, suspense and rich characters. The writer/director handles the whole film skillfully with a masterful hand, pulling the comic side and dramatic one together in the last portion very effectively, for an ending with warmth and celebration.
The charismatic Layla Mohammadi is the acting – and comedy – powerhouse in this film, on screen much of the time, but the other actors create distinct characters as well, particularly Niousha Noor as the mother, Shireen. The actors playing the father and brothers, and later a special non-Iranian friend, all do well too but the story really revolves around the mother-daughter relationship. Some of the elements of this story really happened to Keshavarz (including some unlikely ones) but other parts are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
It all adds up to a movie that is highly entertaining, energetic, funny and always involving, whether it is being silly funny or even heroic, all tied up with a large happy, crazy family at the end, a true crowd-pleaser that won the Audience award at Sundance.
THE PERSIAN VERSION opens Friday, Nov. 3, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema and other theaters nationally.
(l-r) Jeremy Pope and Raul Castillo in THE INSPECTION. Photo credit: Patti Perret/A24 Films. Courtesy of A24 Films.
A homeless young Black man, rejected by his mother and with few options, decides to join the Marines, but the catch is the young man is gay and an earlier time when gays were banned from serving in the military, the era of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Gabrielle Union plays the mother of this young man, whom she kicked out ten years earlier, in this moving drama inspired by writer/director Elegance Bratton’s own experiences. The drama has garnered strong praise for its powerful drama, in an impressive directorial debut for writer/director Elegance Bratton.
Ellis French (Jeremy Pope) has been living on the streets since his mother kicked him out at the age of 15. Now 25, he sees little ahead for him and decides to do something desperate, specifically entering the military. Not just the military but the Marines, rather than a less-tough branch like the army or navy. However, before he can be inducted, Ellis must get his birth certificate from his mother, who does not want any contact with him. Showing up at her door, his mother (Gabriel Union), a ramrod-straight, strict corrections officer, is both shocked and cold towards him, treating her son as if he is a threat to her safety and barring the door to him. She responds to his decision to join the Marines with a mix of skepticism and mild amusement. Eventually, reluctantly, she warily lets him in.
Her behavior raises questions in our minds about their past history but the film offers little on that past. Her apartment is filled with objects that tell us she is deeply religious, so we guess that her religious feelings are at least part of why she rejected her gay son, but her reaction is so extreme, we wonder if there is something more.
Joining the Marines hardly seems like the best idea for a gay Black man in this more homophobic era, so his estranged mother’s skepticism about that decision might be something we share as well. Yet Ellis is making a very deliberate choice in picking the Marines. He is offering himself up to be remade, with a hope for a rebirth into a different life. That mix of desperation and determination drives him but it seems a long reach.
Marine boot camp is tough for any recruit but more so for someone concealing a secret like Ellis French. Induction calls for recruit French to declare he is not a communist or planning to overthrow the government, along with a litany of other things, including being homosexual. He does that without blinking. Once at boot camp, French finds himself among mostly white recruits, who already think of themselves as Marines. Yet he finds he is not the only one facing special challenges, including a Muslim recruit named Ismail (Eman Esfandi).
The drill instructors are led by tough Sergeant Laws (Bokeem Woodbine), a Black sergeant who, unlike the rest of the instructors, has actual combat experience. It is something he wears like a medal on his chest, something which both he and the other instructors clearly feel sets him on a different plane, but it also has a toxic effect. “I hate recruits,” Laws says early on, “But I love Marines.” Since both Laws and recruit Ellis French are Black, one expects a connection between them, but it is a Hispanic drill instructor, Rosales (Raul Castillo), who quietly offers some encouragement and something more, albeit more in private.
Jeremy Pope gives a moving performance as Ellis French, who reveals a level of commitment to his goal and courage in the face of the abuse he receives once they figure out he is gay, as you know they will. In an unusual role for her, Gabriel Union gives us a harsh, rigid and religious woman as Ellis’ mother, although we catch glimpses of a motherly impulse to hope for success for her son, even as she keeps him at arm’s length.
Other outstanding performances sharpen the raw emotion of this powerful drama, notably Raul Castillo as the more kind drill instructor. Bokeem Woodbine is alternately terrifying and riveting Laws, the hardened lead drill instructor.
It is a grueling experience, as one expects, but THE INSPECTION is unblinking and unrestrained in its depiction of the boot camp’s bullying, abuse and hardship. That brutal honesty goes a ways to elevating this film above the usual boot camp tale, but the film is also a salute to what the Marines gave Bratton, a personal rebirth on several levels. We have to assume French’s unseen ten years spent on the streets have given him an inner strength and resourcefulness we don’t expect at first. Along with the bullying and violence, we also see moments of friendship, humor, and even tenderness. It is not just a sense of camaraderie that grows between the recruits but a pride in accomplishment, and a deeper kind of personal transformation for the lead character.
The camera often focuses closely on faces, and a surprising number of scenes are shot in dim light or half lit, giving the film a far different tone than most boot camp dramas, one that is more contemplative. The pace is contemplative too, at least early on, requiring us to let things develop. We are given little about Ellis’ previous life, or details of what happen between him and his mother, leaving the audience wondering about what has to have been pivotal years. Instead, the focus is firmly on the boot camp experience, and its powerful ending, which eschews pat conclusions.
It is not a perfect film but this semi-autobiographical drama is surprising, effective and deeply, movingly human, and an impressive debut for writer/director Elegance Bratton, full of promise.
Gabriel LaBelle as Sammy Fabelman, in THE FABELMANS, co-written, produced and directed by Steven Spielberg. Photo credit: Courtesy of Universal
In his semi-autobiographical film THE FABELMANS, director Steven Spielberg looks back on growing up and how he fell in love with movie-making, a remembrance told through the lens of his parents’ marriage. Of course, “semi-autobiographical” means not everything we see is true but the story is by turns funny, touching and heartbreaking, as Sammy Fabelman, the stand-in for young Spielberg, grows up while his determination to make movies also grows, and his parents’ marriage falls apart. The film features a stellar cast, including Paul Dano, Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, and Judd Hirsch with a nice cameo by David Lynch. Spielberg co-wrote the script with Tony Kushner, who also co-wrote “Munich” with the director, and with music by John Williams, the stage is set for something wonderful – and we get exactly that.
There seems to be a spate of partly-biographical films from big-name directors in the last couple of years, maybe partly due to reflection during pandemic lock-down or just to reaching an age for looking back (Spielberg is now 75). This one joins Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical “Belfast” from last year and Sam Mendes’ partly-biographical ode to his mother, “Empire of Light.”
THE FABELMANS starts out with the family in 1950s New Jersey, as we meet 6-six-year-old Sammy Fabelman (Mateo Zoryon Francis-Deford) while he is standing in line with his parents Mitzi (Michelle Williams) and Burt (Paul Dano) to see his very first movie. However, young Sammy is not too sure about this experience because he is afraid of the dark. It does not help matters when his mother, in an effort to reassure him, describes movies as “like dreams” – which Sammy quickly notes can sometimes be scary. But his parents tell him the movie is about the circus, and Sammy loves the circus and clowns (in an earlier era when clowns were seen as harmless and funny rather than scary). And the movie? Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Greatest Show On Earth.” If you have seen this epic, you know it is less a light, happy comedy than a dramatic epic, with a showstopper scene of a circus train wreck.
Sammy’s parents obviously expected a more light-hearted movie (and what parent hasn’t made this kind of mistake?), so they are nervous about Sammy’s reaction after the show. Sammy does indeed seem stunned afterwards, but it is because he wants to know how they did that train-wreck scene. But Hanukkah is coming, and the lighting of the menorah candles, and Sammy gets an electric train set, one car at a time until the final piece, the transformer to power it all. Yup – train-wreck re-enactment is inevitable, and when his mother hands him a home movie camera so he can record it, the pattern is set.
Sammy’s fascination with making movies is encouraged actively by his artistic mother Mitzi, who even gives him his first movie camera, but it puzzles his science-inclined father Burt. The film follows Sammy’s early efforts at making movies, along with growing up with his three sisters (one a baby) and his parents. His brilliant engineer/inventor father Burt (Paul Dano) is working on the cutting edge of the nascent computer industry, developing the machines that will drive the future. His mother Mitzi (Michelle Williams) is a talented pianist but gave up her dreams of the concert stage to raise her family.
Scenes of little Sammy crashing his train and filming it with his dad’s home movie camera give way to more movie-making, often starring his older sisters, who seem to enjoy the process nearly as much as their brother.
Burt Fabelman’s soaring career takes the family from the suburbs of New Jersey, to Arizona, and then to northern California. Tagging along is fellow computer engineer Bennie Loewy (Seth Rogen), a family friend who is kind of an uncle to the kids as well as Burt’s co-worker in early computer research.
For anyone who grew up making little movies (or knew someone who did), this film is pure catnip. At the same time, this is a universal coming-of-age story for anyone who grew up in the later half of the 20th century. The film-making sequences are among the most fun, and punctuate the family’s story as well as illuminating young Sammy’s growth as he approaches adulthood. This beautifully constructed family story has humor and heart-break, and a winning coming-of-age story.
While scientist Burt is supportive of his son, he sees his son’s movie-making as a hobby, and something he will grow out of. It’s pretty clear Burt wants his son to follow in this footsteps but as much as Sammy loves his quiet, kindly father, he is just not the same. As a sister points out, Sammy doesn’t even like math, but he sure loves making movies. Dad’s gentle efforts to interest his son – in fact any of this children – in his world of science is often undermined by jokes by ever-present pal Bennie. Although Bennie is in the same nascent computer field as Burt, his playful, jokester temperament is more like Sammy’s mom Mitzi.
While the family’s Jewish identity is clear, it is not always at the forefront in the story and instead is integrated into it in a pleasingly natural way. Interestingly, the Fabelmans never seem to live in neighborhoods with many other Jewish families around, as they move from place to place. In New Jersey, they drive home after in winter through a subdivision full of houses decorated with Christmas lights, until they reach their own unlit house. Yet later, we see a festive menorah in the window, as extended family gathers to celebrate Hanukkah. Later in Arizona, we see both grandmothers visit them, Mitzi’s warm mother Tina Schildkraut (Robin Bartlett) and Burt’s more critical one, Hadassah Fabelman (Jeannie Berlin). But by the time the family reaches northern California, as Dad’s career is reaching the top, the family finds itself in very different territory, a place where, as Sammy comments, “there are hardly any Jews.” Here Sammy is confronted by open antisemitism, in the form of a hate-filled fellow student in high school.
Both Michelle Williams and Paul Dano are marvelous as Sammy’s parents, two good but mismatched people. Michelle Williams is particularly brilliant as Sammy’s artistic mother, in one of her best performances in a career of them. Mitzi is encouraging to her son while frustrated in her own life, and the two do not always get along. Paul Dano is surprisingly good in the less-showy, more-challenging role as Sammy’s quiet, kind, steady, more reserved father. Dano manages effectively the difficult job of portraying a man who, while not understanding his creative son’s passion for movie-making, ever-hopeful that he will grow out of it, and fearing for his financial future if he doesn’t, is still supportive and kindly towards him, even if he doesn’t understand, In fact, both actors present these people as good parents who put their children first, even as things between them are breaking down.
Two young actors play Sammy Fabelman, Mateo Zoryon Francis-Deford as little Sammy, and Gabriel LaBelle as the teenage Sammy. The former is cute but newcomer Gabriel LaBelle does a truly impressive job, delivering a fine, strong performance often laced with a dry humor. Also very good are the girls playing Sammy’s two older sisters, his companions in movie-making in his early attempts. Both Julia Butters as Sammy’s sister Reggie and Keeley Karsten as sister Natalie give appealing, effective performances.
Other supporting roles offer humor and more. Seth Rogen plays Bennie, a part largely based on Spielberg’s favorite uncle. Rogen’s Bennie is often silly but role isn’t always comic, as his constant presence sometimes disrupts serious Burt’s attempts to connect with his family, and Rogen does well in the part. Yet Bennie encourages also Sammy’s movie-making ambitions along with Mitzi, and he plays a crucial role at a pivotal moment for the budding director. Judd Hirsch plays Mitzi’s oddball Uncle Boris, who comes to visit at one point, telling tales of working in early movies, and having a profound effect on Sammy. Hirsch’s bit as crazy Boris is short but a comic highlight. Another actor notable in a smaller role is Jeannie Berlin, who is dryly funny as Burt’s disapproving mother Haddash Fabelman. “This is brisket?” she asks after marching into Mitzi’s kitchen and opening her oven door to inspect the meal.
Spielberg recreates his own earliest films – which include a dentist horror one, a Western, and a war movie – but the director has admitted in interviews that he improved them over the originals, as he found the originals too embarrassing to show. And why not? The admission is its own kind of charming for fans and film buffs, and more of that catnip for the childhood movie-makers among us.
“The Fabelmans” is a lovely love letter to film-making, and to Spielberg’s family, with a message about good parenting and what matters in life. This film is very well-constructed, weaving together Sammy’s movie-making and growing up, with what is happening to his parents’ marriage, in a cohesive tale of family life. It is film that is entertaining but has something real to say about growing up and following dreams.
“The Fabelmans” is a wonderful cinematic Thanksgiving treat, particularly for those who dabbled in movie-making as kids.
