“The Perfect Candidate” – It’s relative [MOVIE REVIEW]
Mila Alzahrani in “The Perfect Candidate.” Photo courtesy of Music Box Films. “The Perfect Candidate,” written by Haifaa Al Mansour and Brad Niemann and directed by Mansour, is a film with as many ambitions as the lead character. This German/Saudi Arabian co-production was primarily filmed in Saudi Arabia, in itself a major accomplishment. That the director is a Saudi woman making her second film in that country is even more extraordinary. In many ways this is Mansour’s love song to her native land and the remarkable changes that have occurred in recent years. That there is so far yet to go from a woman’s rights standpoint is not the point. A few years ago, none of the events in this film would have been possible, beginning with the opening scene of the lead character, a female doctor driving a car to work. Dr. Maryam Alsafan recognizes two things: as a woman she is allowed to practice medicine and also, she is relegated to second class status for the very reason that she is a woman. No activist, she merely wants a better job in a better clinic. Working at the sole clinic/emergency service in her town, her frustrations increase because access to the facility is limited due to an…
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