The first Saudi woman to direct a feature film (“Wadjda”), Haifaa Al-Mansour, brings her unique voice and perspective to her follow-up movie, “The Perfect Candidate,” the story of a female doctor who decides to run for a local political office. The film lends an insider’s look at life in modern-day Saudi Arabia and the changing role of women in a country known for its restrictive gender customs.

Maryam (Mila Al Zahrani) is an ambitious young doctor working in a small town medical clinic. She’s well-educated and smart, yet she gets daily pushback from many of her male patients and has to work... read the rest.