Maryam (Mila Al Zahrani) is a doctor at a small country clinic - the road to the clinic is unpaved, and is constantly susceptible to flooding. Through a series of circumstances, Maryam ends up as a candidate for her local council, running against the local member who has ignored her pleas for a new road.
With the road as her first campaign issue, she enlists her sisters to get her campaign off the ground. While their father is away on a music tour, the three sisters support Maryam’s campaign.
Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia's first female director, The Perfect Candidate is a David and Goliath story about a young woman and her sisters taking on the system.
In some ways it reminded me of Sunshine Cleaning, in that it is about a family of sisters pulling together to accomplish a goal.
What I liked about it was while it did not lean too hard into the darkness of the system, there was always a sense of barriers. I was on edge throughout the movie that there would be some kind of dramatic pushback on Maryam or her family, but nothing like that arises.
The film is packed with great scenes, from Maryam's abortive attempt to do a teleconference with a tent full of men, to the sisters researching campaign videos by watching a homemade campaign video by an American guy whose key policy is to move his state capital.
Maryam is a great character - she has a strong sense of self-worth, and as barriers arise to her candidacy, she takes up this opposition as a part of her campaign. Actress Mila Al Zahrani brings a clarity and purpose to the protagonist, bringing a fire that the rest of the film does not have.
I hope The Perfect Candidate shows up on a streaming service soon - it is a warm, funny story from a perspective we do not get to see.
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