Mary Shelley

Directed by Haifaa Al Mansour (Wadjda) and starring Elle Fanning, Mary Shelley depicts the author as a fiercely modern 19th-century woman, and her Frankenstein as the product of unbridled imagination and profound grief. As Saudi Arabia’s first female filmmaker, Al Mansour is as much a pioneer as her heroine and she renders Mary Shelley as a sumptuous and intoxicating proto-feminist tale of fearless self-actualisation and fiery creativity.