Meet Haifaa al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia’s first female filmmaker and award-winning director

Saudi Arabia’s first female filmmaker, Haifaa al-Mansour – who is often referred to as one of the kingdom’s boldest and most controversial film directors – has shed a light on the way people live in the closed-off country. She challenges the status quo when it comes to raising the curtain on the prejudices against women in her conservative country. And she has done so despite there being no cinemas in operation in Saudi Arabia from 1983 to 2018.

Here is what you need to know about the 45-year-old pioneer filmmaker: