ZARDA (Sweet-rice, a local desert in Pakistan) is a slice-of-life, Docufiction film. We peek into the life of a young Pakistani teenage girl Shella who comes from a conservative, lower middle-class family but dreams with an open heart. Slowly stepping out into the real world, Shella is fascinated by the ever-changing aesthetic of the modern life. One such occurrence accounts to her looking at a girl getting hair dyed pink, leaving her utterly mesmerized and longing for something like that for herself. Unfortunately, her cultural norms and lack of bodily autonomy renders it impossible until she is forced to realize and challenge these norms and find her own way out.