The Perfect Candidate

Stressed Saudi small-town doctor becomes a feminist politician by mistake in Haifaa Al-Mansour’s engaging film about the conditions of change.

Haifaa Al-Mansour won the audience award at Göteborg with the illegally recorded début success The Green Bicycle, the first film recorded in its entirety in Saudi Arabia, and the first directed by a woman. Al-Mansour now returns to Saudi Arabia with a film related to the début – legal, but just as steeped in humanism and compelling feminism. At the core is the doctor Maryan, who becomes the first female candidate in the municipal election. Although she encounters resistance, her candidacy attracts more and more interest. The Perfect Candidate is a film that both through its story and its very existence explores how change is possible.

• Jonas Holmberg