The Perfect Candidate

Maryam is a doctor at a small-town hospital in Saudi Arabia. The road to the hospital is mud and ambulances struggle to reach it; she has complained repeatedly and nobody has acted. On her way to a conference she is refused boarding because of a missing permission document. Applying to see an official, she accidentally registers as a candidate for the municipal council. Then she does not withdraw. The subject is not politics but getting a road paved. Maryam's campaign rests on one concrete demand and her whole struggle is to have it taken seriously; most of the male voters will not even agree to listen to a woman. The form is calm and everyday: hospital corridors, the family house, wedding halls. A parallel strand follows her father's music tour; he plays the traditional music his sons reject. The production was shot in Saudi Arabia, and Haifaa al-Mansour was known as the country's first woman director. She had directed her previous film, Wadjda, by radio from inside a van because she could not appear in the street; conditions had changed by this one. It screened in the main competition at Venice in 2019 and was submitted as Saudi Arabia's Oscar entry. Mila Al-Zahrani plays Maryam. Who it is for: viewers who like social drama from the Middle East and stories of everyday resistance. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a sharp political reckoning; the film proceeds with restraint and does not confront the system directly.