Warning: spoilers alert ahead for Shayda, Australia’s shortlist-rejected submission to this year’s Academy Award for Best International Feature, to be released in March.

Waaaaay back in the halcyon days of 2021, I wondered what it would feel like for a movie to reveal it’s “based on a true story” during the closing credits instead of at the beginning.

Well, I asked, and Shayda delivered.

Granted, informed citizens of the world will know that what the movie depicts is based on an all-too-common reality . . . but is there a difference between knowing that what we’re watching is based on an amalgamation of true stories, versus knowing that it’s based on the personal story of the writer/director?

Shayda relays this info as one final gut punch, especially as conveyed by home videos.

And not a “based on a true story” card.