Maryam is an ambitious young doctor working in a small town clinic in Saudi Arabia. After Maryam is prevented from traveling to Dubai in search of a better job, a bureaucratic mixup leads her to stumble on the application for her local city elections and she decides to run.

Trailblazing director Haifaa al-Mansour, whose debut Wadjda marked several milestones for Saudi filmmaking, returns to her homeland for this story of feminine defiance. The Perfect Candidate is a sensitive political drama that challenges patriarchal norms and finds hope in confrontation.