Film Of The Month: The Perfect Candidate, A Sharp Election Drama by Saudi Arabia’s First Female Director

PUBLISHED October 15th, 2020 05:00 am

Is the shitshow that is this year’s US elections sapping your faith in society? Take a two-hour breather and discover an underdog worth rooting for in The Perfect Candidate. Directed by Haifaa Al Mansour – who made headlines as Saudi Arabia’s first female director with her 2012 debut Wadjda – this political drama stars a female doctor so disgruntled by patriarchal inefficiency that she runs for office herself.

Because women being out in the open is frowned upon in Saudi Arabia, Al Mansour was famously forced to direct outdoor scenes in Wadjda from inside a van, via two-way radio. Eight years on, much has changed. For one, Al Mansour no longer needed to hide in a Honda while filming The Perfect Candidate. The film itself opens with plucky heroine Maryam (Mila Al Zahrani) behind the wheel of her own car – an unthinkable image before late-2017, when the country’s ban on female drivers was lifted.

At the same time, so much has yet to change for this kingdom’s cloistered women, and Al Mansour captures this reality with brilliant wit. Maryam’s political career accidentally launches when she cannot board a flight to a medical conference in Dubai – her father has neglected to renew the permit that women need to fly. Unable to contact him, her next best option is her high-ranking cousin – but the only women he can see on short notice are those signing up as candidates in the local elections.

Thus begins this new-minted candidate’s madcap quest to win hearts and minds, in a country where she is not even allowed to address a male audience face-to-face. Bumping into dismissive men and archaic constraints at every turn, Maryam’s campaigning calls attention to a system designed to muffle women’s voices, even as it pays lip service to progressive ideas.

Don’t expect grand talk of misogyny or female oppression – the film’s power lies in its weaving together of quiet, everyday moments in Saudi society. From her little sister’s pleas to cover her face for her campaign video, to the women who hesitate to support her without asking their husbands (despite the fact that women’s suffrage was legalised in 2015), Al Mansour illuminates a sticky, pervasive web of social norms accepted by women themselves. As foreign viewers, such thinking is deeply jarring – yet we’re also drawn into understanding how natural such thinking is to these women.

It’s not all sexism and gloom, of course. Maryam’s fiery speeches are a joy to watch, and her conviction has gained her more than one surprise convert by election day. Win or lose, her groundbreaking journey is in itself one that brings change nearer. It’s a dose of inspiration you might need this election season.

The Perfect Candidate is now streaming on-demand on The Projector Plus. 

All photos courtesy of Razor Film, Al Mansour’s Establishment for Audiovisual Media