Film | May 15, 2021 |
“Girl power” is too simplistic of a term to fully capture the energy filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour builds into her films. Still, on a surface level, the phrase applies. In 2012’s
Wadjda, the first feature-length Saudi film made by a female director, Al Mansour captured a girl’s desire for freedom in the face of traditionally conservative thinking. (A solid trio of viewing would be
Wadjda, the Dardenne brothers’
Cuties.) After her subsequent films, 2017’s
Nappily Ever After, took her outside of the country narratively, Al Mansour returns to Saudi Arabia with
The Perfect Candidate.
A slice-of-life portrait of a young female doctor who decides to run for political office,
Rolling Stone ‘The Perfect Candidate’ Reminds You That All Politics Are Local Even in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabian filmmaker Haifaa Al-Mansour turns the story of a female doctor who runs for office into a sly, buoyant social drama
By Music Box Films
It must have been exactly what conservative Saudis feared would happen: Let a woman like Haifaa Al-Mansour direct a movie (and the first movie ever shot in Saudi Arabia at that), and a few years later she’ll be back directing another. Only this time, there’ll be actual cinemas in the Kingdom that can show it. Let a 10-year-old girl like Wadjda, the eponymous heroine of Al-Mansour’s delightful 2012 debut, covet a bicycle, and next thing you know, women will be driving. In