Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Cate Blanchett and Zar Amir Ebrahimi are set to attend the Locarno Film Festival’s closing night to promote the European launch of Iranian-Australian director Noora Niasari’s debut film “Shayda.” Blanchett is an executive producer on the drama, which world premiered at Sundance and scored the Utah festival’s audience award. “Shayda” stars Ebrahimi – who broke out last year as a Cannes prizewinner for her role in “Holy Spider” – as a domestic violence survivor during the ’90s in Australia who demands a free life on her own terms, away from the shadow of her abusive husband.
Variety critic Tomris Laffly in her review praised Ebrahimi’s turn in “Shayda” as a “quietly commanding performance” and underlined the film’s “unmistakably feminine spirit of perseverance, one that runs wild and free in this promising debut.” “Niasari nimbly and steadily deepens ‘Shayda’ with a filmmaking style that carries traces of a documentarian’s off-the-cuff alertness, braiding it with qualities akin to a thriller,” Laffly noted.
Blanchett on the afternoon of Aug. 12 will also moderate a conversation between Niasari and Ebrahimi on “Iranian women and Iranian cinema” ahead of the “Shayda” screening on Locarno’s 8,000-seat Piazza Grande.
The “Shayda” screening will be followed by another screening of a surprise film history classic chosen by outgoing Locarno president Marco Solari as his salute after a 20-year stint during which the fest bolstered it status as Europe’s preeminent indie cinema temple.
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