Haifaa Al-Mansour
Haifaa Al-Mansour says she wanted to bring a slice of life in Saudi Arabia to the big screen.
Al-Mansour makes her directorial debut today as Wadjda hits the big screen, a movie that has been doing well on the festival circuit.
It is the first film to be shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, and Al-Mansour says there is no way she could have filmed this movie in any other country.
Speaking exclusively to us here at FemaleFirst the director said: "I wanted to bring a slice of life from Saudi Arabia to the big screen. Furthermore, there are no images coming out of Saudi Arabia and so people do not know what is happening.
"I also wanted to make an authentic film, and I wanted to have an authentic Saudi voice; for me to go and film somewhere else would have taken a lot of the merit away and that was not what I wanted.
"Saudi Arabia is an exciting place where things are moving and things are happening, and I feel very privileged to be part of what is happening."
Wadjda follows a young as she tries to raise money to buy a green bicycle, and marks the big screen debut of actress Waad Mohammed.
Read in full our Haifaa Al-Mansour interview.
Wadja is out now.