The Perfect Candidate
DramaSubtitled Film
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Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour
1hr 41mins
Buy TicketsOnline Tickets available through "official website button" above. Oscar nominee and Saudi Arabia's first woman director Haifaa Al-Mansour (Wadjda SFF 2012), brings a revealing look at the changing roles of women in Saudi Arabia. Maryam is a doctor in a Saudi hospital, the only one in town with emergency facilities. Despite her qualifications, she struggles to to earn the respect of male colleagues and patients every day. After Maryam is prevented from travelling to Dubai in search of a better job, a bureaucratic mixup leads her to run for the local elections. Maryam enlists her two younger sisters to plan her campaign. She becomes a phenomenon, first via social media, than by appearing on an interview show and refusing to answer questions on so-called “women‘s subjects”. Despite, her father and her community's struggle to accept her as their town's first woman candidate, Maryam's journey becomes a symbol for a larger movement.