Rule Breakers Parent Guide

Fascinated by computers since childhood, when only boys were allowed to use them at school, Roya Mahboob (Nikohl Boosheri) worked tenaciously to master them before becoming the first female tech entrepreneur in the history of Afghanistan.

Personal success isn’t enough for Roya: she knows that although girls’ lives are rigidly circumscribed in Afghanistan, they can find freedom online. Now she wants to share the opportunities the internet provides with Afghan girls, so she begins offering computer classes. Then Roya has an idea: if she can assemble a girls’ team to compete at the international robotics championship, young women all over Afghanistan will become aware of the benefits of computer literacy.

With the help of her brother, Ali (Noorin Gulamgaus), Roya manages to find four brilliant young women who have the skills needed for the team. The challenge is persuading their families to allow them to be on the team and attend competitions. Those issues overcome, new problems crop up - trouble getting items through Afghan customs, denial of visas to attend a competition in the USA, financial challenges in the girls’ families, harassment and threats, and a fatal explosion that affects the team. Will the challenges crush the girls’ dreams or will they make them smarter, tougher, and more innovative?

Rule Breakers fits neatly into the underdog sports film genre, hitting all the expected beats and delivering strong lessons about persistence, teamwork, determination, overcoming discouragement, and fighting to the end. What makes this film stand out is its bittersweet quality: watching the girls thrive as they are able to learn and grow beyond the constraints forced upon by their society is truly joyful; it’s equally painful to know that the current Taliban regime has once again forced women into lives of medieval servitude. Now that girls can’t attend school beyond sixth grade, or leave home alone, or have their voices heard in public, groups like the Afghan Girls Robotics Team are impossible. (In fact, the members of the original team have all fled the country and are living abroad.) So, although this is a film about hope, it’s also one that will be watched with a real sense of pain.

Despite the heartache, I strongly recommend this film for adults and teens. Negative content is minimal, with only enough violence to help audiences understand the characters’ peril. It’s true that Rule Breakers isn’t groundbreaking cinema, but it does a fine job of telling an important story, one that needs to be told. If we forget women like these, then the Taliban has truly won.