A long list of Saudi women stormed the field of directing in recent years, and succeeded in leaving a cinematic imprint with films that expressed the issues of Arab women in general, and Saudi Arabia in particular, to reveal these works of creative directors and visionaries.

"Bottles" in the face of society

5 stories of 5 women, each of them has a crisis and a different story, but the five meet to face the challenges of society, such as guardianship laws, abandonment of parents, forced marriage, widowhood and sexual assault, through the Saudi film "Bottles", whose stories were directed by 5 Saudi female directors, They are Ragheed Al-Nahdi, Noura Al-Mawlid, Ruba Khafaji, Fatima Al-Hazmi and Nour Al-Amir, and the film is written by Noura Al-Mawlid, Sarah Misfer, Fatima Al-Hazmi and Nour Al-Amir, and starring female actresses Salwa Ahmed, Manal Ahmed, Khayriyah Abu Laban, Raghad Al-Sharm, and Fay Fouad.

The filmmakers express the Arab women from a social perspective, so they chose “flasks” because they refer to the tender woman who is easily breakable because of her feelings, but during the work they reflect the strength of women and the overcoming of the difficult life situations they face in Arab society.

The Saudi film "Bottles" is competing in the Aswan Women's Film Festival, after it recently participated in the first session of the Red Sea International Film Festival.

5 directors and 1 movie

And before "Bottles", the experience of 5 Saudi female directors was also through the movie "Blog", which participated in the Cairo Film Festival and the inaugural session of the Red Sea Festival.

The five directors, Sarah Misfir, Jawaher Al-Amri, Noor Al-Amir, Hind Al-Fahd and Fatima Al-Banawi, chose different women's experiences to present them, and in a cinematic language specific to each of them, as the film allowed each one to present her own vision separately.

The film reflects the human depth of a woman who lives under fear, anxiety and suffering, through the story of a 40-year-old woman who is considering abortion, and we also see the experience of a woman separated from her husband and how she struggles to raise her son, another woman being treated for infertility, and a young girl suffering because of Her family receives all the time harsh and complicated words from her family, and the story of a girl who disappears on her wedding night. The film exposes various women's issues in a way that is more like a parody of the bitter reality, and women's attempts to free themselves from restrictions.

Cinematic Magical Realism

In her first directorial experience in the long-running world of fiction, Saudi director Shahd Al-Amin was able to present an experience closer to magical realism in her movie "The Lady of the Sea", which she also wrote.

The director adopted the symbolic method in communicating her idea, in addition to its reliance on fictional events that are not linked to a specific or clear time, and black and white photography, to revolve events between the world of reality and imagination.

Director Al-Amin expresses through her film the experiences of women and the battle in breaking the restrictions that hinder their lives and their choices as well, when the heroine - a young girl - decides to choose her own destiny and defy the traditions of her village, which offers females an offering to imaginary strange creatures living in the sea.

The director also succeeded in portraying the seascape and the rocky environment in an aesthetic way that highlights her potential as a promising director.

In 2019, the film participated in many international and international festivals, and was in the "Critics Week" competition at the Venice Film Festival, and also participated in the Arab Horizons competition at the Cairo Film Festival.

The first Saudi female director to win an Oscar

Saudi director Haifaa Al-Mansour is considered one of the first female directors to break into the world of the film industry, and began her experience making films with a limited budget and at her own expense.

In her films, Al-Mansour discussed thorny issues. In the movie "Women Without Shadows", she tackled the different views on the veil of women, the rights of Saudi women, and how women are treated from a religious and social standpoint linked to customs and traditions.

Haifa Al-Mansour is considered the first Saudi female director who was able to bring local Saudi films to the world. Her film “Wadjda” was nominated for the Oscar as the best foreign film, a film through which she won nearly 20 awards from international festivals and the Golden Dagger Award for Best Documentary Film from the Muscat Film Festival. She is also the first Saudi female director to win the sixth IWC Award for Directors for her movie "Miss Camel".