“Building on her award-winning debut feature Wadjda (2012), which broke new ground as the first-ever film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia — and the first made by a Saudi woman — writer-director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s new film is the story of one woman’s quest to challenge not only the system but also herself. Maryam (Mila Alzahrani, in a star-making debut performance) works passionately as a doctor in a small-town clinic — though some men refuse her care because of her gender. Maryam has a musical father who, after the passing of her mother, kept the matriarch’s spirit alive in his support of his three girls. But when he goes off on tour, Maryam is unable to renew her travel permit — until very recently, Saudi women were not allowed to travel without the permission of a male guardian — and misses a medical conference. Frustrated by this as well as the attitudes she comes up against at the clinic, Maryam is convinced it’s time to take matters into her own hands: she’s going to run for local council. What follows is a touching family drama, as Maryam, with her sisters’ help, tries to win over the hearts, but mainly the minds, of the men who think she has no place in the public sphere. Like Wadjda, The Perfect Candidate explores the pressing issue of women’s rights through the microcosm of one character, showing that change may be slow to come, yet it can start with the smallest act of bravery.” -TIFF
View our open exhibitions at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. From delicate glass pieces to painted portraits, we have everything you are interested in.
