Rule Breakers

7/1/2025

Movies about underdogs overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds often have a relatively easy time of winning over viewers thanks to their inspiring narratives. This is especially true for fact-based stories, as well as films that have a particularly strong family-friendly vibe associated with them. At the same time, though, these productions also run the risk of overdoing it when it comes to these qualities, and such is very much the case here. The film tells the tale of the Afghan Dreamers Robotics Team, a quartet of passionate, inventive high school girls (Amber Afzali, Nina Hosseinzadeh, Sara Malal Rowe, Mariam Saraj) who achieved wide acclaim for their ingenious mechanical creations. They were inspired by their coach and mentor, Roya Mahboob (Nikohl Boosheri), an Afghan computer coder