Product Info

Studio

Angel Studios

Director

Bill Guttentag

Genre

Drama

Rated

PG

Theatrical Release Date (NA)

Mar 7, 2025

Film Length

2hr

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Rule Breakers is a heartwarming story about an Afgan businesswoman, Roya Mahboob, who defies the odds by putting an all girls robotics team together despite the many hurdles she faces. She makes a difference in not only the girls lives but also in bringing awareness and change to her community and the world.

Rolling Uphill

© Angel Studios

Roya Mahboob, played by Nikohl Boosheri, pushed back on the restrictions on women and girls from an early age by seeing the injustice and finding ways to get an education by learning computers. She eventually went on to start a software company where over half of the programmers are women. Even so, she recognized the challenges for her industry and women and wanted to do more. Therefore, she decided to start an all girls robotics team to teach girls computers, programming, and how to build robots. Despite continuously hitting roadblocks by way of community, family, religion, violence, and threats in their wartorn country, Mahboob and the girls went on to compete with other teams across the world. Rule Breakers, inspired by true events of the Afghan Dreamers Robotic Team, shares the story about their growth, strength, and perseverance as they took on their families, their community, their country, and the world by bringing awareness to the human rights issues in their country and by leveraging the media to make change. 

The challenges the girls face early on in the film from family and community, right down to the very basics of receiving mail, in order to receive parts to build robots, shows just how much they have to overcome. From the hierarchy of family dynamics to the hierarchy of men over women and families, how the men in the community tried to protect the girls or make sure they knew their place is very prevalent. As the girls face these challenges, you can feel the injustice and frustration, and then as they begin to have doors open, feel the triumph. The first half of the movie is definitely an emotional roller coaster.

Shaky Second Half

As the movie continues, you may not feel as many emotions and heartstrings being pulled as you do in the first half as it seems like they were trying to put a lot into it. Down to even the editing, it struggles to keep one engaged as it jumps around and doesn’t have much story to it except to show the team going to competitions. It would have been nice to see more displays of support by other teams and countries to deepen the impact their struggles had on the robotics world or even the world as a whole, but it falls a bit short of what it seems they hoped for.

Mechanically Pleasing

© Angel Studios

The actors are the strength of the film. Boosheri and the girls she mentors, played by Nina Hosseinzadeh (Taara), Amber Afzali (Esin), Sara Malal Rowe (Haadiya), and Mariam Saraj (Arezo), really pull you in. The actors do a wonderful job showing the struggles of respecting family and community while also having a desire to learn and the freedom and possibility of a future other than as a housewife like many women in their country. They show that the desires and wants for oneself and the girls and women of their country don’t take away from the love and respect for one’s family and community.

The way the film’s director, Bill Guttentag, brought in both Afghan music and scenery into the film made you feel like you were right there in Afghanistan. The locations, while very different from more developed countries, are beautiful and sometimes humbling to watch. The locations fit perfectly with the story and truly capture a charm and beauty that most people in the world will not get to experience.

The Final Robot

Rule Breakers is an intriguing film. It starts strong but becomes inconsistent in its second half until the end. Even so, it provides a decent introduction to those unfamiliar with Roya Mahboob and her inspirational work for the benefit of women.

An early screening provided for this film. Rule Breakers hits theaters on March 7th. Viewers can visit the official website for tickets and showtimes.