Pioneering Saudi Arabian filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour has come a long way since secretly directing her 2012 drama “Wadjda,” which made waves as the first film shot in Saudi during a time when filmmaking was banned in the kingdom. After lifting the ban in 2017, her country has come a long way, too.
Post “Wadjda,” Al Mansour — who now divides her time between Los Angeles and her home country — has helmed two Hollywood productions: “Mary Shelley,” starring Elle Fanning, and rom-com “Nappily Ever After.” She has also directed several episodes of major U.S. TV series such as “Fear the Walking Dead.”
Al Mansour has also made two subsequent movies in Saudi. First the 2019 dramedy “The Perfect Candidate,” about a young female physician who maneuvers through the male-dominated society to run in municipal elections. And, more recently, her new film “Unidentified,” a thriller that revolves around the discovery of the lifeless body of a teenage girl in the desert. When no one claims the body, Noelle Al Saffan, a newly divorced true-crime aficionado who recently lost a child of her own, gets obsessively involved.
“Unidentified,” which is fully financed by Saudi’s Rotana Studios, just launched from the Toronto Film Festival and will release in the U.S. via Sony Pictures Classics. But what’s more important for Al Mansour is how it will play with Saudi audiences, as she tells Variety below.
“Unidentified” is the third picture in a trilogy about women asserting their rights in Saudi society. What drew you to this particular story and to the thriller genre?
I think it is time in the Middle East that we evolve beyond making films that are primarily political or social. It’s a hot region where so many things are happening. But, when it comes to the art, I think it’s important to also tell stories that are entertaining and fun, while also being very current. In this case, I wanted to depict the intricacies of a culture where sexism and violence against women are rampant and where the assassination of a woman doesn’t really matter. I also wanted to portray women as complex characters, not just one-dimensional ones. But I wanted to make it fun by doing all this within a genre film.
Talk to me about the importance of putting more complex Saudi women on screen.
The truth is that women in the Middle East have a lot of agency and a lot of sass. And they hustle, in spite of a system that always marginalizes them. So I wanted to show what happens to a woman when she is put in a place of frustration; wen she feels that she is not heard and she doesn’t matter and she is just pushed to the side. But we are not always innocent angels. So I also wanted to show Saudi women that can be morally flawed.
It’s been interesting to watch different roles played by women in your trilogy over the years. “Wadjda” (2012) was about a young girl who was not allowed to ride a bicycle. In “Unidentified,” women are driving cars and the protagonist takes on a police investigation even though she is not supposed to. Of course there is a long way to go, but would you say life for women in Saudi has improved?
Absolutely. It has changed much. At the time of “Wadjda,” the country was segregated. As a filmmaker, I wasn’t able to go in the streets and shoot amid men because the country wasn’t ready for that. So of course, it has shifted so much. Especially in the workplace. We see Noelle trying to become a police officer, because police work has been opened up to women. I feel that Saudi Arabia is changing at a very quick pace and even leaping ahead of countries like Egypt in terms of giving women more liberties. But I also think we need to push society to open up more and treat men and women equally. We are not there yet, not just in Saudi but across all the Middle East.
In the film, Noelle is a big follower of a female Saudi influencer whose videos combine makeup tutorials and crime reconstructions. Is this based on something real in the region, where social media is so pervasive?
Yes it is. As you may know, there is this whole genre of content where creators discuss true crime stories while simultaneously applying makeup. Of course, social media is huge in Saudi. I have kids who are on TikTok, and I have to be on TikTok just to make sure that they are safe. But especially in the Middle East, because we are very conservative and there are lots social constraints, social media can be really positive in bringing people in society together.
From a production standpoint, was this film difficult to finance?
Unlike “Wadjda” and “The Perfect Candidate,” which were Saudi-German co-productions, “Unidentifed” is completely financed from Saudi Arabia, which is something that I feel is very important for us Saudi artists. Of course, it means more pressure to deliver. But gradually, the infrastructure, talents and crew needed to build a local industry are starting to be there. And I’m really proud of Saudi Arabia for encouraging artists and championing it.
When is the film going to play in Saudi?
I think we will launch in the Arab world from the Red Sea Film Festival in December and then go out in movie theaters. I’m really excited for Saudi audiences to watch a movie made by a woman, starring a woman that hopefully does well in the box office. I feel like a lot of times in the Middle East, they just want to invest in male stars and types of male-skewed films that they think are going to be successful. So I’m really hoping that we do well to prove that we can, as women, make films and succeed.
variety.com
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