Opening Film
The Perfect Candidate
Haifaa Al Mansour | Drama | 2019 | 104 min | Saudi Arabia | Sub: English | 13+
Maryam is an ambitious young doctor working in a small town clinic in Saudi Arabia. Despite her qualifications, she has to earn the respect of male colleagues and acceptance from her patients every day. After Maryam is prevented from traveling to Dubai in search of a better job, a bureaucratic mixup leads her to stumble on the application for her local city elections and she decides to run. With her musician father away on tour playing the first public concerts allowed in the Kingdom in decades, Maryam enlists her two younger sisters to begin fundraising and planning campaign events. While they face the restriction of women’s traditional roles in the Kingdom at every turn, Maryam’s audacious candidacy starts to build momentum and challenges her conservative community. A tight race emerges between Maryam and her male opponent, as Maryam and her family mobilize their determination and creativity to move their traditional society forward.
Nominee Golden Lion, Best Film Venice Film Festival, 2019
Saudi Arabian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards
Closing Film
Until Tomorrow
Ali Asgari | Drama | 2022 | 86 min | Iran | Sub: English | 18+
A single mother’s courage is tested when she resorts to desperate measures to hide her illegitimate child from her parents. Until Tomorrow is a study of the millennial generation and how they are reexamining the value system not only in Iran but also in so many other countries. The odyssey of Fereshteh takes us under the skin of the Iranian capital, Tehran, to understand how the youth have gained the courage and confidence to question the traditional ways of life and break away from patriarchy. By portraying complex characters, I fill the story with an authentic real-life tension that makes the audience feel the urgency and implications of the situations that Fereshteh findsherself in.
Nominee Panorama Audience Award, Berlin International Film Festival 2022
Nominee Golden Eye, Best International Feature Film Zurich Film Festival 2022