A wary unease hangs over “Shayda,” the debut feature film of Iranian-born filmmaker Noora Niasari.

In simplest terms, it’s a domestic melodrama, a story of a custody fight against the Islamic patriarchy of fundamentalist Iran. But what the viewer absorbs is the quiet, relentless fear of where we and the title character believe this story is heading.

Shayda, portrayed in a tense, quiet and soulful turn by Zar Amir Ebrahimi, is sure the abusive husband she fled and the tentacled state “back home” that is most concerned with “his” rights, are going to kidnap their daughter and take her back to Iran.

Her paranoia is contagious as information is doled-out sparingly and slowly in this quietly sinister story, framed within a particularly fraught exchange organized by an Australian social worker (Leah Purcell) who is trying to give Shayda and her child all the help that country can give, within the law.

They’re living in a women’s shelter. Everybody there has reason to keep the location a secret and perhaps lay low until their case is closer to resolution. Only Shayda has “anxiety attacks” over the carelessness of some of the others who pass through — young women, in one case supported by her insensitive if not idiotic mother, who want to live their lives, reconnect with their “freedom” and maybe get Shayda to babysit for them while they go out clubbing.

“The Husband” is kept out of sight, a hidden menace who may be in that station wagon parked across the street, in the ear of judgmental, gossipy Islamic fundamentalist women who spot Shayda– despite her haircut and dark shades — trying to buy traditional foods for Nowruz (Persian New Year) for herself and daughter Mona (Selina Zahednia) at the area Persian market.

The pre-school child is very much trapped in the middle here, quick to give voice to complaints about the shelter, the other kids there, wanting to “go home,” see her grandmother, etc. Shayda becomes the classic tries-too-hard Mom, a smiling mom who loves to dance teaching Mona to dance, making promises, trying to teach her child behavior and values she will need because Australia, where her husband brought them while he attends medical (Veterinary?) school, is to be their permanent home.

The judgements from Shayda’s culture can be subtle — a phone translator who bends and dulls Shayda’s Persian testimony about the domestic violence she faced, disapproving scowls from this fundamentalist, customer or that clerk careless who seems to know more of Shayda’s business than she’d like.

And then we meet towering, bespectled Hossien (Osamah Sami), still talking about the life “back home” that they’re returning to, still demanding when Shayda will “stop” with all these actions to end their marriage.

He bargains — “No more hijab” as if that’ll make a difference. He pleads “I’ve changed” (in Persian with English subtitles).

Shayda and we know better. As the point of view shifts to his court-allowed (unsupervised) visits, we wonder if he’ll take Mona because we don’t have to guess what he’s thinking. He grills the child about her mother’s activities with her more assimilated pal Elly (Rina Mousavi) and Mommy’s “new friend” (Mojean Aria).

Poor Mona finds herself unable to keep promises, tripped up by the stress of keeping each parent’s lies from the other.

The story — set in 1995 — is familiar to the point of being conventional. This isn’t a moral outrage melodrama of the “Not Without My Daughter” variety. But the viewer brings expectations into a film like “Shayda” that make it difficult for such stories to surprise. And the feeling of dread that hangs over most scenes notwithstanding, those expectations are almost unfailingly met in a story we’ve seen too many times before.

But Ebrahimi, dogged and fierce in “Holy Spider,” carries the picture by simply humanizing a character who could be Anywoman facing this sort of crisis in a foreign land, or a home country that disregards women’s rights.

Shayda lives in fear but clings to the longing that being in a more liberated country engenders. She’d like to go clubbing, to dance, maybe meet someone nicer than the man who threatened her and assaulted her. She’d love for her daughter to grow up in a place where possibilities are everywhere around her.

But to get them there, she knows and we suspect that she can never ever afford to let down her guard.

Rating: PG-13 for thematic material involving domestic abuse, some violence and profanity.

Cast: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Selina Zahednia, Leah Purcell, Mojean Aria, Rina Mousavi and
Osamah Sami

Credits: Scripted and directed by Noora Niasari A Sony Pictures Classics release.

Running time: 1:58