The Perfect Candidate

I watched The Perfect Candidate because I had previously enjoyed very much Wadja and I was not disappointed. The story is simple and touching, inviting the spectator to understand how gender dynamics work in Saudi Arabia. It is also a call for a more open society, embracing women's contribution to medicine, politics and music.

The film full of gentleness, support, beautiful women outside and inside and good music. We may have rare oportunity to see on screen how people in Saudi Arabia live and how women fight to be recognized just as always in this world. The audience at the film festival in Belgrade applauded after the film ended. Definitely worth seeing.

I found this film via the Florida Film Festival in 2020 as a feature film listing. I found the film to be both an entertaining film as well from the perspective of today's Saudi Arabian culture in general and issues for Saudi women in particular quite educational. A plus in the movie was the focus on the Saudi musicians and singers who were playing live gigs that have recently been allowed by the government in Saudi Arabia. I found the film well worth my time.

First of all I must say that to a certain extent this movie gives you an interesting look at a different part of the world, how people live there and what kind of problems they need to face. But sadly this is where the positive aspects end in my opinion.

This movie is about Maryam, a young Saudi-Arabian doctor who wants to run for the office in the local city elections but she has to struggle with a lot while the community does not accept her as their town's first female candidate. So we can see how women in different parts of the world live and with what kinds of problems they have to deal to be taken seriously in their workspace or the regular life.

Sadly the story itself is pretty boring and predictable. After like 20-30 minutes you can say how this movie ends and the build up for the climax is too long. The movie also couldn't really reach me emotionally due to the actors, because I wasn't able to sympathize with them. And when you finally reach the point where the movie actually gets a little bit exciting, the movie has almost ended. The cinamtography and the score were ok, but nothing great.

In the end I would still say that this is a movie you can definitly watch once, simply to get a different look at the world and maybe you can even enjoy the movie, because I'm sure that this movie can give hope to someone. But sadly this movie didn't work for me.

This is a good film. The people in it are likeable, the story is good. It made me feel good watching it.