Saudi's first female filmmaker wants to 'push for change' with art VeniceFilmFestival
, was arriving on Netflix. As the Muslim world's most conservative country was opening up to the arts, al-Mansour, who lives in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley and is married to a former U.S. State Department employee, was perfectly positioned to seize upon the opportunity, and she intended to, laying the groundwork to shoot her next movie in her homeland.
"Art is something we should not give up on," al-Mansour says of working in Saudi Arabia at a time when many of her Hollywood peers consider the country to be politically and morally toxic. "The question should not be whether or not Hollywood should invest in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Mansour says Saudi censors read her script and required no changes to it. "They didn't have any issues, but I tend to understand the culture, and I write within those limitations," she says. She cast a Saudi TV actress, Mila Al Zahrani, as her lead. Working with a cast and crew of about 50 people, she shot the Arabic-language film in streets in east Riyadh, in an outdoor performance hall and in a rented private home.
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