Haifaa al-Mansour (Arabic: هيفاء المنصور‎, born 1974) is a film director from Saudi Arabia. She is one of the country's best-known and most controversial directors, and the first female Saudi filmmaker.
She is the daughter of the poet Abdul Rahman Mansour, who introduced her to films by video, there being no movie theaters in Saudi Arabia.[3] With his encouragement, she studied comparative literature at the American University in Cairo, Egypt.
Haifaa Al Mansour is the first female filmmaker in Saudi Arabia. The success of her short films in the Gulf and around the world has inspired a new movement of independent filmmaking in the Kingdom. Al Mansour is well known for penetrating the wall of silence surrounding the sequestered lives of Saudi women and providing a platform for their unheard voices. "My work is dedicated to fostering direct political, social and economic change for Arab women" (Dox Box 2009 FilmFest, Damascus - Syria.

Her first feature film "Wadjda" (2012), was selected in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival 2012 (World Premiere). It is the first full-length feature to be shot entirely in Saudi Arabia. "Wadjda" tells the story of an 11-year old girl growing up in the suburbs of Riyadh, who dreams of owning and riding a green bicycle.

FILMOGRAPHY
Who? - من؟
The Bitter Journey - الرحيل المر
The Only Way Out - أنا والآخر
Women Without Shadows - نساء بلا الظل
Wadjda

Source: Africiné / Dox-Box 2010 / Venice Film Festival 2012 / Wikipedia
www.dox-box.org/site/index.php?page=show&ex=2&dir=docs&ex=2&ser=1&lang=2&cat=155
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haifaa_al-Mansour

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DE
Haifaa Al Mansour ist die erste weibliche Filmemacherin Saudi-Arabiens.
An der Amerikanischen Universität Cairo hat sie vergleichende Literatur studiert und ein Masterstudium in Film an der Universität Sydney mit dem „Prestigious Endeavour Scholarship Award"abgeschlossen.
Wadjda ist ihr erster Spielfilm und der erste in Saudi-Arabien gedrehte Spielfilm überhaupt. Das Drehbuch wurde im Rawi Sundance entwickelt und mit dem Shasha Grant des Abu Dhabi Film Festival ausgezeichnet.

Filmographie

Kurzfilme
Who? (2003)
Bereavement of the Fledgling (2003)
The only way out (2004)

Dokumentarfilm
Women Without Shadows (2005)

Spielfilm
Wadjda (2012)

Source:
http://razor-film.de/wordpress/projekte/wadjda/