DON'T BE LATE, MYRA

DON’T BE LATE, MYRA

15 Min | Afia Serena Nathaniel | Pakistan

Myra misses her school bus and must find her way back home alone. The short thriller takes a turn as she tries to dodge men harassing her on the streets of Lahore.

#childabuse #assault #trauma #sexualviolence

live action

fiction

Director

Afia Serena Nathaniel

Pakistani-American filmmaker, Afia Nathaniel, was raised between Lahore and several air force bases where she grew up with a deep love for fighter jet planes, long road trips and discovering worlds hiding in plain sight.

Afia’s debut feature DUKHTAR – a road trip thriller – premiered to a rousing reception at Toronto in 2014 and became Pakistan’s Official Oscar Submission for the “Best Foreign Language Film” category. DUKHTAR played to critical acclaim in over 20 countries to rave reviews and was the Critics’ Pick (Village Voice) and the People Magazine’s Pick of the Week. It was labelled as “exquisite” by New York Times and billed as “a road journey to end all road journeys” by Huffington Post. The screenplay for the film has been invited to the Academy’s Permanent Core Collection.

Through her films, Afia explores pressing social justice issues of our times which a critic lauded as “a stunning, emotive work”. She has been featured in the Variety, NYT, Indiewire, NPR, Huffington Post and Screen Daily. Variety says, “Nathaniel proves her mettle in a national industry where distaff directors are rare”.

Afia is an alumnus of Columbia University, Berlin’s Talent Project Market, Gotham, Tribeca Film Institute and Film Independent. Her work has received support from HBO, Netflix, National Geographic, Tribeca Film Institute, Cinereach, Women in Film, New York Foundation for the Arts, Rotterdam, SorFond, NYSCA + HFPA.

Afia’s film DON’T BE LATE, MYRA premiered at Woodstock in 2024 and was nominated for the Oscar-qualifying Mark Braunstein Award Best Short Narrative. Recently, the film swept awards in New York and London bagging “Best Short Film” at Big Apple Film Festival and “Best Long Short” at UK Asian Film Festival.