Saudi Director Shahad Ameen Shooting Female Empowerment Road Movie ‘Hijra’ With CAA Handling U.S. Sales (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabian director Shahad Ameen, whose feminist fable “Scales” made a splash after launching from Venice in 2019, is back behind the camera on “Hijra,” an ambitious drama centered on the bond formed between different generations of Saudi women during a journey across the desert.

CAA is handling North American sales on “Hijra,” which is being shot in a vast swathe of desert and in several Saudi cities and urban areas including Jeddah, Medina, AlUla and Neom. “Scales,” which was Ameen’s first film, was a parable on the position of women in Saudi’s patriarchal society.

Her more high-end follow-up “highlights the role of women from different generations in building Saudi society,” according to the film’s provided synopsis. “Hijra” (see first-look images, above and below) is the story of a grandmother’s journey with her two granddaughters from the city of Taif, in the Hijaz Mountains, to Mecca, the Saudi city that is the cradle of Islam.

When the eldest granddaughter disappears, the grandmother and her young granddaughter travel to the north in search of the missing teenager. “The cultural and aesthetic diversity of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia feature strongly in the film through an intimate story that brings together a grandmother and her granddaughter on a poetic journey,” the synopsis notes.