It’s hard to imagine becoming a filmmaker in a country with no cinemas. It’s especially hard if that country is Saudi Arabia, and you happen to be a woman, forbidden to drive, or show your face in public, or travel in or out of the country without permission.
(Every time a Saudi Arabian woman crosses the border a text message alert is sent to her male guardian, who could be her father, husband or son.)
Haifaa al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia’s first female film director and the first person to shoot a film entirely in Saudi Arabia, was 30 years old when she decided she’d had enough.
Born and raised there, she went to university in Cairo before returning and finding a job in media relations with a leading oil company.
'It was hard as a single woman to find a place to live,’ says al-Mansour. 'They wouldn’t write a [rental] contract for an apartment until my father came and helped.'
'And then I had to find a driver to take me to work every day – and he didn’t show up, or slept in. I bought him an alarm, but he sold the alarm.’
She says, 'I felt, “I’m so invisible, nobody cares and I am no one.” I wanted to have a voice, and I wanted to say something.’ » | Horratia Horrod | Friday, July 19, 2013
