Two films that deal with female empowerment in the Arab world have stood out for me in the past week of film viewing. In both films, the protagonist was not portrayed as a militant hero, but as someone who needed to rise to the occasion when confronted with injustice and male oppression. These two films offer stories of brave perseverance in the face of humiliation, bullying and abuse. I am fascinated by a whole wave of female directors from the Arab world who in spite of many difficulties are finding ways to tell the stories that are essential to them in this moment of history. More well-known and awarded films like Nadine Labaki’s Kapernaum (2018), Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Wadjda (2012) and Annemarie Jecir’s Wajib are just the tip of an iceberg, truly indicating an Arab spring in cinema.

The Perfect Candidate (2019) is the latest film of the Saudi Arabian film director Haifaa Al-Mansour. Born in Saudi Arabia as the daughter of a poet who stimulated her interest in film and literature, she became the first Saudi female filmmaker who made a feature-long film.

The Perfect Candidate is a quite simple story, but with a sharp edge in laying bare the underlying suppressive forces for a woman in the patriarchal social structure of Saudi Arabia. The ”perfect” candidate is Maryam, a young doctor in a Saudi hospital, who is regularly put in her place as a woman by her male colleagues and meets refusal from male patients to be treated by her. Partly as an exasperated reaction to that kind of treatment, partly accidentally, she decides to run for office in the local elections. But then she runs against all the forces of male domination and nepotism that characterize that political context. This is the space of men she invades. The outcome is unclear, but it makes you feel that a new era for women in the Arab world is starting to break through.

A grimmer subject is treated in the film Beauty and the Dogs (2017) by the Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania. Ben Hania chooses to present her subject matter in 9 chapters via long takes, giving a documentary tone to the film. The film is based on a true story about a rape perpetrated by police officers in Tunis.

The film starts with Mariam, a young college student, visiting a university party dance in a hotel close to the beach. She leaves the hotel for a walk along the beach with the guy she has met at the dance. At the beach she is raped by police officers who handcuff her new boyfriend Youssef. The 9 scenes depict her nightmarish, terrifying odyssey through Tunis’ private and public hospitals and police stations, trying to press charges for her rape. Everywhere she is turned away and bullied, because either they fear their own jobs and safety or they want to protect their colleagues and practices. She’s threatened with the disgrace that will come upon her by making known what happened. While every door closes on her, we follow the various phases of Mariam’s ordeal, her fear, her disgrace, her trauma. Many times she wants to walk out of it all and give up, but then we see her mustering courage. At the end of the hellish night we see her leaving the police station, stepping into an uncertain, difficult future.

And we understand that we can’t step aside and turn a blind eye when and wherever the underprivileged and vulnerable are met by injustice and intimidation. And we have much reason to celebrate that Arab women are finding their voices through film, challenging us with their stories of bravery when faced with humiliation and oppression.

Please check JustWatch to find where you can stream ‘The Perfect Candidate’ and ‘Beauty and the Dogs’ from your location.

Rinus, August 2020

*trailer and images posted for non commercial purposes under fair use of copyright material in recommendation of the film

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