"If you lose, you lost because of you."
Written by Andie Kaiser
In this short, we follow boxer Nyousha Nakhjiri as she works towards qualifying for the Olympics. Born in Iran but now living in and competing for Canada, she’d become the first Iranian-born female boxer to compete in the games. While the documentary’s length prevents it from going into too much detail about her boxing journey, it presents a compelling story and a really moving look at Nakhjiri and her family. I found the moments we spent with Nakhjiri’s mother, Elehah, to be most powerful; she spoke about making the choice to immigrate to Canada when Nyousha was young, not wanting her daughter to face the same kind of gendered repression she did. This included being sent to prison for activism when she was just 16, where she spent four and a half years. The relationship between Nyousha and Elehah is the heart of the film.
Nakhjiri’s struggles with ADHD and anxiety are also touched upon, and there’s some nice use of sound and voiceover to represent her racing thoughts in the ring. I was left feeling as though these moments could have been explored in some more depth, but it was nonetheless interesting to hear about the unique challenges that something like ADHD poses for a boxer.
The film made its world premiere at Hot Docs, with future screenings in Canada to be announced.
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