The Perfect Candidate

    The Perfect Candidate
    2020

    Synopsis

    A young Saudi doctor campaigns for a seat on the municipal council, finding confidence as she combats prejudice.

    Your Movie Library

    Cast

    • Mila AlzahraniDr. Maryam Alsafan
    • Nora Al AwadhSara
    • Dae Al HilaliSelma
    • Khalid AbdulrhimAbdulaziz
    • Shafi Al HarthyMohammed
    • Mohamed OthmanHimself
    • Nojoud AhmedDr. Abeer
    • Khadeeja Mua'thKhadeeja
    • Tareq Al KhaldiOmar
    • Reema MohammedBadria (voice)

    Recommendations

    • 88

      TheWrap

      The Perfect Candidate feels like a film that both represents a new era for women in the Muslim world and also one that will help push that movement forward.
    • 80

      The Guardian

      The Perfect Candidate is a simple story, told without frills or even much in the way of nuance. But it’s socked through with great power, conviction and an underlying hope for a better world.
    • 80

      The Guardian

      The Perfect Candidate is the sort of film I can imagine getting a remake in contemporary America or Britain, with not as many changes as we might assume.
    • 80

      The Observer (UK)

      Like Maryam’s approach to local politics, the film is well-meaning but occasionally naive.
    • 75

      The Playlist

      It may be too gentle to leave a deep impression, but its sweetness is also well-earned and nice to savor.
    • 70

      The Hollywood Reporter

      What The Perfect Candidate lacks in sophistication it makes up for in intuition, entwining the longtime taboos of music (especially the female voice) and women's active participation in political life in a positive storyline.
    • 67

      IndieWire

      The Perfect Candidate can feel sedate and disjointed as a broad portrait of empowerment, but this is nothing if not a movie of its time, and it sings — sometimes literally — whenever it hones in on the unique struggle through which Saudi Arabian women might seize upon this historic moment.
    • 60

      Screen Daily

      The film never entirely transcends its nature as a polemical pamphlet - and despite strong presence in those scenes where Maryam speaks truth to power, Alzahrani doesn’t quite have the charisma to make her substantially more than a representative figure.