Inspiring True-Life Tale of Afghan Dreamers

This latest movie from Angel Studios demonstrates that the distributor’s interest in releasing films that veer away from proselytizing is paying off artistically. Relating the true-life story of the Afghan Dreamers, a group of young women who groundbreakingly participated in international robotics competitions, Bill Guttentag’s Rule Breakers proves inspirational in the best sense of the word. The film’s release is perfectly timed for Women’s History Month.

Scripted by the two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker (for the documentary shorts Twin Towers and You Don’t Have to Die), along with Jason Brown and Elaha Mahboob, the film centers on Roya Mahboob (Nikolhl Boosheri), whose interest in computers wasn’t exactly encouraged in her native Afghanistan, as demonstrated by an early scene in which she’s nearly assassinated.

When she was a young student, she was ordered to leave the classroom along with the other girls when the teacher began instructing the boys as to how to use some newly arrived computers. She’s shown forlornly peeking in through the window, desperate to learn a subject that fascinates her but is denied to her gender.

Several years later (the film suffers at times from its confusing timeline), she’s a star university student who strikes a deal with a friendly café owner (Nassar Memarzia) to teach him how to use the computer he keeps for his male customers if he’ll let her practice on it every morning before he opens up.

Not much later she’s not only become an expert with the technology, but has also started her own successful software company and opened a computer school for girls. Their interest is deeper than she expected; when she decides to create an all-girls robotics team and seeks four members, dozens of girls show up to audition.

Needless to say, the team faces numerous hurdles, including the resistance of the girls’ families to let them participate. But Roya proves as persuasive as she is determined, as illustrated in one of the film’s best scenes, which finds her convincing one skeptical father to let his daughter pursue her dream.

The obstacles continue even after the team proves their mettle. Preparing to travel to America to participate in a competition, the girls are denied visas for such reasons as having recently traveled to Iran to visit a relative. After Roya appeals to a sympathetic American journalist to write about their plight, the story becomes an international media sensation. And even then, traveling at the last minute, they’re nearly unable to get on a sold-out flight until several people volunteer to give up their seats.

The ensuing plot developments as the team travels around the world participating in robotics competitions strike both familiar and fresh beats, the former stemming from the standard tropes endemic to the genre and the latter from the unique circumstances involved. For instance, after one competition, the girls excitedly sign the shirts of competing male players and get theirs signed in return, leading to shaming by their relatives and violent threats from the Taliban.

There’s even the obligatory competition montage scored to upbeat music, in this case the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling.”

But despite its occasionally stale elements, the film succeeds movingly thanks to the inherent power of its narrative and the terrific performances by Boosher and the four young actresses (Amber Afzali, Nina Hosseinzadeh, Sara Malal Rowe, and Mariam Saraj) as the team members. Ali Fazal (Death on the Nile, Victoria & Abdul) shows up briefly but appealingly as an Indian-American businessman who provides moral and financial support, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge displays a warm, winning presence as a competition judge.

Rule Breakers proves scattershot in its storytelling and features one or two too many last-minute crises for its plucky heroines to overcome. But by the time the titular characters enter the climactic competition with their ingenious invention of a landmine-detecting robot that has the potential to save thousands of lives around the world, you’ll be thoroughly rooting for them. The end credits provide a satisfying coda informing us about the real-life figures involved, including Roya Mahboob being named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.