Haifaa Goes To Holly Wood

Saudi Arabia’s first female director is glad she held out for the right project after the success of her first film.

- Ann Marie Mcqueen

Haifaa Al-Mansour has to be the only Hollywood director who’s thought to herself ‘at least I don’t have to hide to get this shot’. Widely recognised as Saudi Arabia's first female film director, Haifaa did literally have to hide in a van some of the time while directing her first feature film, 2012’s widely acclaimed Wadjda.

The story of a young girl who dreams of getting a forbidden bicycle couldn’t be different from her second feature, due out this year. Mary Shelley tackles the writer's romantic relationship with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, which inspired her to write Frankenstein, and with Elle Fanning in the title role, features some of the hottest young actors working in Hollywood today. Haifaa, who is also in post-production on her third feature, Nappily Ever After, a romantic comedy starring Sanaa Lathan, is enjoying her freedom.

“In Saudi you have to always be sensitive to the culture, it is stressful in that way. Not only are you worrying about the shot and the cinematography, we worried about so many things,” she explains. “In Mary Shelley it was amazing because I could just engage with your craft, I didn’t have to hide. For me I felt I was very grateful for that moment, just to be engaging with my art and having fun with it. It was really a wonderful moment.”