Based on an incredible real-life story, Rule Breakers is a powerful tale of resilience and resistance in the face of adversity.
Director: Bill Guttentag
Genre: Drama
Run Time: 120′
U.S. Release: March 7, 2025
U.K. Release: TBA
Where to Watch: In theaters
“This is our Afghanistan too,” says the main character of Rule Breakers at the beginning of the film, and ultimately, this is what the movie really is: a story of Afghanistan from the perspective of the women whose stories are often untold and silenced.
Set in Afghanistan, Rule Breakers starts in 2017 in the Herat Province, as explained by the intertitles. Here, Afghan businesswoman Roya Mahboob (Nikohl Boosheri) embarks on a radical attempt to teach computer and IT skills to young girls in schools around the country. Despite the significant amounts of threats that she receives, Roya also takes on an even more ambitious and seemingly impossible mission. She decides to create and mentor the very first all-girl Robotics team to represent Afghanistan in competitions all over the world. This will have her face sceptical family members, patriarchal beliefs, and a significant lack of funding and opportunities to do so.
From the very beginning, Rule Breakers is a poignant reminder of the everyday struggles Afghan women must endure. As Roya herself says in the film, life is not fair for them and yet, like the characters in the movie, women in Afghanistan still fight and endure despite the gender-based discrimination and violence they constantly face. A lot of it is visible in the film: Roya is targeted by the Taliban just for teaching young girls how to use a computer, something she had never been able to learn while in school as computers were only for boys. Both the use of computers and education become radical acts, making the protagonists of this film a prime target for those who don’t believe in teaching women.
This was in 2017, when the film is set, but the intertitles at the end of the movie prompt us to consider that this is still very much the same in Afghanistan. If anything, it is worse, as all the women involved in the Robotics team had to flee their homes in 2021 when the Taliban took over the country. But what about those who couldn’t flee and all the women who still live in Afghanistan and are granted even less freedom than what we see in this film? Rule Breakers does not have an answer for this but raises a very important and fundamental concern over the lack of education for women in the country.
The stakes in Rule Breakers are immediately high. After all, a big part of this film is about the various competitions the robotic team attends across the world. While the movie is about a lot more than just the Robotics team or about competing, a big part of its emotional appeal is that this is the story of an underdog team that had all the odds stacked against them. The movie portrays this really well when it allows us to witness the Afghan team’s objective disadvantage compared to the others as they always have significantly fewer funds, opportunities, or time to prepare.
Admittedly, I would have liked to see more of the actual competitions, as they are such a key part of the narrative of Rule Breakers. Instead, the film only focuses on the first and last ones as the main events we follow throughout. While this is understandable – showing too many competitions would pose the risk of having a repetitive and overtly long film – it makes the narrative lose some of its momentum in the second act of the movie.
Unfortunately, Rule Breakers also presents some structural issues from a storytelling point of view, which ultimately affect the story’s delivery in the first half of the movie. In the first act, the story focuses too much on the past as well. It is very interesting to see Roya’s background as it gives the audience a good perspective on why she keeps pursuing this against all odds, but it also takes away screen time from the Robotics team itself as the latter only comes into play about halfway through the film. The movie also constantly uses flashbacks and flashforward while signposting where we are in time (and place) too much for my liking, but it still manages to deliver a strong and engaging story.
Overall, Rule Breakers remains a very powerful and emotional film. The extensive character development allows the audience to care about the people in this movie and their stories. As the film goes on, we start building an emotional connection with them, which is mirrored by the friendship and relationships between the characters. Part underdog story and part advocacy film, Rule Breakers is both inspirational and hopeful while also remaining true to the harsh reality that women experience in Afghanistan.
Rule Breakers: Movie Plot & Recap
Synopsis:
In Afghanistan, educating women is a radical act but this does not stop Roya Mahoob from continuing to do so despite all the physical and verbal threats she receives as she creates Afghanistan’s first all-girls Robotic Teams with the dream of competing with them all over the world.
Pros:
- The film shines a light on the very important issue of women’s education – or lack thereof – in Afghanistan.
- The characters and the relationships between them are well-developed and heartwarming to watch
- The tension and stakes of the competition are high until the very end of the movie
Cons:
- It has some structural issues with the way the story is told, especially in the first act.
- Flashbacks are overused in the first half of the film and the frequent intertitles don’t entirely fit with the story and genre of the movie.
Rule Breakers will be released in US and Canadian theatres on March 7, 2025.
