Haifaa al-mansour biography for kids

She is one of the country's best-known and one of the first female Saudi filmmakers. Haifaa is the eighth out of twelve children of the poet Abdul Rahman Mansour, who introduced her to films by video, there being no movie theaters in Saudi Arabia between and One of her favorite actors was Jackie Chan. She is from Al Zulfi but grew up in Al-Hasa.

Although her town was conservative, her father would go to a Blockbuster and grab any films that were available and bring them back home for their large family to enjoy together. Since cinema was banned in Saudi Arabia, Haifaa and her family received lots of judgment and threats from the people in her conservative town, but this never stopped her father from raising her and the other children to do things they felt passionate about.

Haifaa al-mansour movies

Although she grew up in a liberal family with non-traditional parents, her mother still had expectations for Haifaa to have a prestigious career. Her mother really wanted her to become a doctor, but that did not work out for Haifaa. She also tried becoming an engineer, but that also did not happen. With her father's encouragement, she studied comparative literature at The American University in Cairo.

After school, Haifaa worked at an oil company and taught English, she later completed a master's degree in Film Studies from University of Sydney , Australia. She began her filmmaking career with three shorts , Who? She followed these with the documentary Women Without Shadows , which deals with the hidden lives of women in Arab States of the Persian Gulf.

It was shown at 17 international festivals. Her feature debut, Wadjda , which she wrote as well as directed, made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival; it is the first full-length feature to be shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and as of , the only feature-length film made in Saudi Arabia by a female director. Wadjda tells the story of a year-old girl growing up in the suburbs of Riyadh , who dreams of owning and riding a green bicycle.