Director Haifaa al-Mansour spent most of her childhood watching American films with her dad

Filmmaker Haifaa al-Mansour is Saudi Arabia’s first female director. Her feature film debut, 2012’s Wadjda, received critical acclaim and became the country’s first official Oscar submission (for Best Foreign Language Film) although it wasn’t nominated. Now she’s following up her debut with a pair of English-language films, the period drama Mary Shelley, based on the life of the acclaimed author, and Nappily Ever After, a film produced in partnership with Netflix. At the premiere of Mary Shelley, we spoke to al-Mansour about growing up watching American films with her father.