‘Unidentified’ Director Haifaa Al Mansour On A New Era In Saudi Arabian Filmmaking, Especially For Women
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- Haifaa Al Mansour became Saudi Arabia's first female feature-film director with 2012's Wadjda, directing cast and crew via walkie-talkie because the Kingdom's gender segregation barred her from being on set with actors.
- Wadjda premiered at Venice, earned a BAFTA nomination for Best Film Not in the English Language, and was Saudi Arabia's first-ever Oscar submission for Best Foreign Film.
- Unidentified, a crime thriller about a newly divorced woman investigating a teenage girl's desert murder, premiered at TIFF and opens theatrically today on 90 screens via Sony Pictures Classics.
- Al Mansour's films form a loose trilogy centered on women "who refuse to be victims, and who are claiming agency" — from Wadjda's rebellious 10-year-old to the doctor-politician in The Perfect Candidate (2019) to Noelle Al Saffan, played by Mila Al Zahrani, in Unidentified.
- The Perfect Candidate was the first feature backed by Saudi's national film council (now the Saudi Film Commission), and Unidentified was financed entirely from within the Kingdom — a shift Al Mansour calls "really empowering for local artists."
- Saudi Arabia lifted its 35-year cinema ban in 2017, and at Cannes in May officials announced raising its international production incentive to a 60% rebate on eligible local spending.
Why it matters: Saudi cinema has gone from zero — Al Mansour directing through walkie-talkies in 2012 because segregation kept her off set — to a fully locally financed third feature opening on 90 U.S. screens, backed by a 60% rebate designed to lure international productions and train young Saudi filmmakers.
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