‘Rule Breakers’ Review: STEM Power Meets Girl Power in Tale of a Female Robotics Team From Afghanistan

variety.com:

Lisa Kennedy The streets of Herat, Afghanistan, are paved not with gold but with scrolling code in the spirited drama “Rule Breakers.” Teacher and startup owner Roya Mahboob believes in the transformative possibilities of computers.

Portrayed with a mix of stubbornness and smarts by Nikohl Boosheri, Roya is the kind of ponderer who sees images from computer screens and lines of iridescent code on the building walls and roadways of Herat. “The first time I touched a computer, it was like a light in the dark,” the young educator says, standing in front of a classroom of rapt high school girls in Herat Province.

Something similar could be said of “Rule Breakers,” which tells the story of Roya and the four gifted students she enlists for Afghanistan’s first robotics team.

While director Bill Guttentag leans into the rules of genre more than breaks with them, the film is a beam of light — about math, science and the ability of girls to achieve — arriving at a moment when not only the Taliban continues to aggressively deny girls an education in Afghanistan, but also science in our own country is taking a hit.