Rule Breakers
The based-on-true story of a team of Afghan girls who broke the mold by entering international robotics competitions is standard-issue feel good vibes.
“Rule Breakers” is a pretty standard-issue feel-good movie. It’s the based-on-true story of of a group of Afghan girls who achieved international fame by entering robotics competitions at a time when many females in their nation were not even allowed to touch computers or leave their homes unaccompanied by a male family member.
Directed by Bill Guttentag, who co-wrote the script with Jason Brown and Elaha Mahboob, it’s the sort of joyful, life-affirming stuff that you just know is going to end in triumph, after a sufficient amount of setbacks and a tragedy or two. At times it has a made-for-TV feel to it.
A product of Angel Studios, known for producing and distributing faith-based films, “Breakes” doesn’t really fit into that category. There’s no proselytizing and no expressions of Christian beliefs. The girls are all Muslims, but as typical teens they want to have fun and express their individuality, which sometimes gets them in trouble with their traditional elders.
Even more vitriol arrives from fundamentalist elements, including some acts of violence and threats by the Taliban remnants.
I suppose you could say there’s a political element to the story, since after America’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2020 those extremists are again repressing the women, including denying them educational opportunities like those depicted in the film. End titles let us know the fate of the specific women depicted in the story.
Nikohl Boosheri plays Roya Mahboob, the adult leader of the robotics team. A smart and plucky gal, she taught herself how to code computers as a youngster and created tech start-ups. Her attention soon shifted to educating girls, leveraging the friendship of a tech bro friend, Samir (Ali Fazal), to build opportunities for them.
Eventually they stumble onto the idea of a robotics team. You may have seen these on the news or internet — high schoolers gather from all over the globe to build and then compete with their robots against each other. Most of it is goofy games like picking up balls and placing them in a receptacle, but as we’ll see the Afghani eventually find a much more practical application to benefit their war-torn country.
The four standouts selected for the team are Esin (Amber Afzali), Taara (Nina Hosseinzadeh), Haadiya (Sara Malal Rowe) and Arezo (Mariam Saraj). They don’t really have super distinct personalities, forming more of a Greek chorus of smart, ambitious young women.
Roya’s brother, Ali (Noorin Gulamgaus), helps them out and acts as their male chaperone to satisfy the tut-tutters. Nasser Memarzia has a nice supporting role as Abdul, the proprietor of a local coffee shop who initially gives Roya the high hat when she asks to use his untouched computers, and eventually becomes one of her biggest supporters.
At two hours long, “Rule Breakers” drags quite a bit at times. The best part is early on, in the familiar “putting a team together” phase. Roya struggles to speak with fathers who were raised to see her as less then.
Once we get to their first competition, held in the U.S., the storytelling seems to go on autopilot. The movie includes footage with interviews with real robotics participants made to seem like it’s part of the show.
There are the usual cultural differences to navigate, such as the girls not being allowed to physically touch any male. When the Danish team offers to exchange signing of shirts as an act of collegiality, it sets off a major firestorm back home.
It all builds to the very familiar arc. Starting off as novelties, the Afghan team gradually gets better and finally starts to medal in competitions. Roya becomes obsessed with winning the top prize, for reasons never made entirely clear.
It all comes down to the big final match, with the usual challenges and road blocks thrown their way. Their robot gets smashed in shipping and they have to improvise with the help of some Latino mechanics.
“Rule Breakers” is fine enough at what it does. The movie holds very few surprises and I felt like everything that happened I could see coming a long way off. For a film about brave girls shattering boundaries, it feels overly bound to convention.