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A conversation with Haifaa Al Mansour
March 04, 20206:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62).
6:00 p.m.
Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
In English, with simultaneous translation into Spanish.
The director of the film “The Perfect Candidate” will be coming to our
headquarters in Madrid on Wednesday, March 4, for an event organized by
Casa Árabe and Golem Distribution. At the talk, she will discuss the
freedom of Saudi women and their longings.
On the occasion of the March 6 premiere at movie theaters of The Perfect Candidate, the latest film by Saudi director Haifaa Al Mansour, Casa Árabe has organized this dialogue with the director, who is visiting Madrid to promote her film. Also taking part in the dialogue will be Celia de Anca, director of the Saudi Center for Islamic Economics and Finance and an expert on women’s entrepreneurship in the Gulf. It will be moderated by film journalist and CIMA representative Begoña Piña. The two will hold a dialogue with Haifaa Al Mansour, the first female film director in her country, about women’s freedom and their wants and desires as entrepreneurs within traditional cultural contexts, as is the case with Saudi Arabia.
Event information sheet
The Perfect Candidate
The story of a female doctor who runs for the elections in an ultraconservative country fiercely controlled by men is the common thread tying together the plot of The Perfect Candidate, the new work by ground-breaking Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour, the director of Wadjda (The Green Bicycle) and Mary Shelley, as well as the award-winning documentary Women Without Shadows, and a fundamental role-player in the debate that has arisen about creativity at movie theaters in Saudi Arabia. The Perfect Candidate tells the story of a female Saudi doctor who defies the patriarchal system by running for the office of mayor to fix the highway which leads to the health care center where she works.
The film is premiering in theaters on Friday, March 6.
Comments by the director
“Through her journey, I want to show that women can play a positive role in Saudi society, as well as contributing to forging their own destiny. I want to encourage Saudi women to dare to break away from the system which has been holding them back for so long. Changes can only take place if the people who need them most fight to make them in their everyday lives.
The film’s subtext revolves around the need to respect and honor our powerful traditions in culture and art so that they can guide us in our efforts to modernize the country. Since the country first began to develop, any form of artistic expression has been prohibited. Little by little, concert halls, cinemas and art galleries are opening back up again; to me it seems like the time has come to study the rich artistic heritage which we nearly lost. We have to recover, restore and bring back to life our traditional music and our images. Now that movie theaters have opened and women are allowed to drive in the Saudi kingdom, I want to show how much effort real change requires.
Women will get the opportunity to contribute and take part in a society which has kept them on the sidelines for generations. The most difficult part for them will be to see beyond the old-fashioned social barriers and limited goals that they have been allowed to dream of; they will have to break the taboos holding them back and leap towards opening up new paths for this and the next generation.”
Haifaa Al Mansour
She earned her bachelor’s degree in Literature at the American University of Cairo and completed a Master’s degree in Directing and Film Studies at the University of Sydney. She is considered the first female director in Saudi Arabia, and her feature-length movie Wadjda (The Green Bicycle, 2012) was the first to be fully filmed in the Saudi kingdom. She has taken part in over 40 international festivals with this film and has won awards including those given at Venice, Rotterdam and Dubai. The Perfect Candidate was a candidate in the Official Section at the last Venice Film Festival, which included only two films directed by women. It is one of the most important titles to be premiering on Friday, March 6, coinciding with the celebrations planned to mark International Women’s Day.
Celia de Anca
She is currently the director of the Saudi Center for Islamic Economics and Finance (SCIEF) and the Center for Diversity in Global Management, as well as a professor of Diversity and Islamic Finance at the IE Business School. She has authored Beyond Tribalism, Palgrave McMillan 2012, and is a co-author of Managing Diversity in the Global Organization, Macmillan 2007.
Event information sheet
The Perfect Candidate
The story of a female doctor who runs for the elections in an ultraconservative country fiercely controlled by men is the common thread tying together the plot of The Perfect Candidate, the new work by ground-breaking Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour, the director of Wadjda (The Green Bicycle) and Mary Shelley, as well as the award-winning documentary Women Without Shadows, and a fundamental role-player in the debate that has arisen about creativity at movie theaters in Saudi Arabia. The Perfect Candidate tells the story of a female Saudi doctor who defies the patriarchal system by running for the office of mayor to fix the highway which leads to the health care center where she works.
The film is premiering in theaters on Friday, March 6.
Comments by the director
“Through her journey, I want to show that women can play a positive role in Saudi society, as well as contributing to forging their own destiny. I want to encourage Saudi women to dare to break away from the system which has been holding them back for so long. Changes can only take place if the people who need them most fight to make them in their everyday lives.
The film’s subtext revolves around the need to respect and honor our powerful traditions in culture and art so that they can guide us in our efforts to modernize the country. Since the country first began to develop, any form of artistic expression has been prohibited. Little by little, concert halls, cinemas and art galleries are opening back up again; to me it seems like the time has come to study the rich artistic heritage which we nearly lost. We have to recover, restore and bring back to life our traditional music and our images. Now that movie theaters have opened and women are allowed to drive in the Saudi kingdom, I want to show how much effort real change requires.
Women will get the opportunity to contribute and take part in a society which has kept them on the sidelines for generations. The most difficult part for them will be to see beyond the old-fashioned social barriers and limited goals that they have been allowed to dream of; they will have to break the taboos holding them back and leap towards opening up new paths for this and the next generation.”
Haifaa Al Mansour
She earned her bachelor’s degree in Literature at the American University of Cairo and completed a Master’s degree in Directing and Film Studies at the University of Sydney. She is considered the first female director in Saudi Arabia, and her feature-length movie Wadjda (The Green Bicycle, 2012) was the first to be fully filmed in the Saudi kingdom. She has taken part in over 40 international festivals with this film and has won awards including those given at Venice, Rotterdam and Dubai. The Perfect Candidate was a candidate in the Official Section at the last Venice Film Festival, which included only two films directed by women. It is one of the most important titles to be premiering on Friday, March 6, coinciding with the celebrations planned to mark International Women’s Day.
Celia de Anca
She is currently the director of the Saudi Center for Islamic Economics and Finance (SCIEF) and the Center for Diversity in Global Management, as well as a professor of Diversity and Islamic Finance at the IE Business School. She has authored Beyond Tribalism, Palgrave McMillan 2012, and is a co-author of Managing Diversity in the Global Organization, Macmillan 2007.
Haifaa Al Mansour_©Brigitte Lacombe