Films, News, Women Directors, Women Writers

Haifaa Al-Mansour to Direct “The Perfect Candidate”

Haifaa Al-Mansour: PremiereScene/YouTube

“Wadjda” writer-director Haifaa Al-Mansour has lined up her next project. The trailblazing Saudi Arabian filmmaker will helm “The Perfect Candidate,” a drama about a young female physician who “maneuvers through her conservative, male-dominated society to run in the municipal council elections,” Variety reports.

“The Perfect Candidate’s” Saudi protagonist is spurred into action after being turned away at the airport “because her travel permission from her male guardian wasn’t up to date,” the source summarizes. Frustrated by the incident, she launches “an absurd campaign, balancing strict social norms, gender segregation, and the influence of her eccentric family.” The Arabic-language project will also feature comedic elements.

“The Perfect Candidate” is scheduled to film in Saudi Arabia during the second half of 2018.

Al-Mansour is known as Saudi Arabia’s first female filmmaker. Her debut feature, “Wadjda,” made its world premiere at the 2012 Venice Film Festival and was Saudi Arabia’s first submission for the Oscar’s foreign-language film category. The drama follows an 11-year-old Saudi girl who dreams of owning her own bicycle.

“I feel like especially in literature and movies coming from the Middle East, because it is a very harsh place for women, women are depicted as victims,” Al-Mansour has said. “Because it is hard. You cannot say it’s a good place for women. But I think it is more important to give inspiring stories, so women can change that. We need to change our destinies, we need to work hard to make the situation better for ourselves.”

“Mary Shelley,” Al-Mansour’s next project, is currently in post-production. Formerly known as “A Storm in the Stars,” the biopic centers on the titular “Frankenstein” author and her relationship with poet Percy Shelley. Elle Fanning toplines the project, which is expected to premiere at Venice this September.


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