After making it in Hollywood, Saudi director Haifaa Al Mansour is determined to bring her talents back to the region, a plan propelled forward after winning the sixth IWC Filmmaker's Award for Miss Camel at Dubai International Film Festival this weekend.
The story of a Saudi camel who dreams of competing in Abu Dhabi's annual camel beauty contest won over the jury, led by Australian actress Cate Blanchett.
The win provides US$100,000 (Dh367,315) towards developing Miss Camel, which Al Mansour wants to produce using stop-motion animation. She and her American husband, Bradley Niemann, who are now based in Los Angeles with their two children, have been working on the script for the past two years. She spoke to The National before this week's announcement that cinemas in Saudi Arabia will reopen early next year, as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030.
“Writing is such a lonely place, right?” Al Mansour says. “You don’t know if what you are doing is right or wrong, so after that hard work, it’s amazing to see that validation. It’s really gratifying, and to know you are on the right track, and hopefully that will give us some money to start doing the character design and the environment design, to take it to the next level.”
The project tells the story of a feisty Saudi camel who “thinks she’s cut for bigger things” and plots to travel from Riyadh to the UAE capital so she can become Miss Camel.
"Camels are our pets, you know, we love them and we decorate them and dress them," Al Mansour says. "So she is trying to find a way to leave Riyadh and go to Abu Dhabi. She finds a girl, who is also trapped in a situation where her parents want to marry her off early, and she wants to go into the arts, so together the two of them take a journey to go from Riyadh to Abu Dhabi."
The film is about self-discovery and female empowerment, two themes Al Mansour has explored in earlier work, but it is also a comedy that celebrates the region’s wildlife, art and music. The goal is to explain regional culture to outsiders, while giving children something to watch where they can see themselves in the characters, the landscape and the story.
“There isn’t a lot of animation [from this region],” Al Mansour explains. “We also don’t have a lot of literature, for children, and it’s so lacking that even I can’t introduce my culture. My husband is American, and my kids live in LA, and I can’t introduce them to a lot of
my culture.”
Al Mansour hopes to see the project completed by 2020. As for where it will materialise, the choice of animation studio depends on whether they can secure future financing in the United States or Europe.
In the meantime, Al Mansour has now made the leap to Hollywood that she held out for after her breakthrough first feature, 2012's Wadjda. That film, about an 11-year-old Saudi girl who dreamed of owning a bicycle, went on to critical and commercial success, becoming Saudi Arabia's first-ever entry to the Academy Awards. She purposefully took her time finding projects after the success of Wadjda, which remains the only feature film made in Saudi Arabia by a Saudi woman.
"After I finished Wadjda, it was easy for me to make another Saudi film, but I really wanted to take time and explore other markets," she explains. "We don't have an industry in Saudi… so it took longer for me to make my second film. I wanted to advance my career, and not be limited in this region."
Her second feature film had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, where it secured US distribution from IFC Films. Due in theatres next year, Mary Shelley is about the Frankenstein author's relationship with her first love, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. It also features performances by several female actors: Elle Fanning plays Shelley, while Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams and Downton Abbey's Joanne Froggatt also appear.
Al Mansour is also in post-production on her third feature, Nappily Ever After, a romantic comedy starring Sanaa Lathan.
Although she says that she runs up against Hollywood sexism that still favours middle-aged white directors – "we're looking for someone more established", she explains, is the code when getting a rejection – Al Mansour is never one to make excuses.
“I’m a firm believer in hard work, that pays off. There are obstacles, there will be, I don’t know, gender and race and all that, sometimes you will be limited,” she says. “But if you give in that is wrong. You should always start to fight and always prepare not to think about that, it’s not important. The importance is the task.”
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Read more:
FAQ: Cinema in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia to open cinemas for first time in 35 years
Escape to the movies: how Saudi cinema ban benefits UAE tourism
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
PROFILE
Name: Enhance Fitness
Year started: 2018
Based: UAE
Employees: 200
Amount raised: $3m
Investors: Global Ventures and angel investors
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Ziina users can donate to relief efforts in Beirut
Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
THE%20SPECS
%3Cp%3EBattery%3A%2060kW%20lithium-ion%20phosphate%3Cbr%3EPower%3A%20Up%20to%20201bhp%3Cbr%3E0%20to%20100kph%3A%207.3%20seconds%3Cbr%3ERange%3A%20418km%3Cbr%3EPrice%3A%20From%20Dh149%2C900%3Cbr%3EAvailable%3A%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
