SAUDI ARABIA TO COMPETE FOR FIRST TIME AT OSCARS

Saudi Arabia, where cinemas are banned, is to compete for an Oscar for the first time next year with feminist film "Wadjda" directed by Haifaa al-Mansour, a Saudi official announced on Sunday.

The movie tells of a young girl's quest to own a bicycle in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom where women are deprived of many rights, among them driving.

“Wadjda will represent Saudi Arabia at the Oscars, competing for the best foreign-language film, in a first for the kingdom," Sultan al-Bazie, who heads the Saudi Arabian Society for Culture and Arts, told media persons.

Directed by Saudi Arabia's first female filmmaker and shot entirely in the Gulf state, the film won best Arabic feature award at the Dubai Film Festival last year and picked up an award in Cannes in March.

But the film, first released in France, will only be seen in the kingdom on DVD or on television.

Mansour has said she was forced to direct what is her first feature film from a van with a walkie-talkie in some of the more conservative districts where she could not be seen in public together with male crew and cast members.

Haifaa Al Mansour is the first female filmmaker in Saudi Arabia and is regarded as one of the most significant cinematic figures in the Kingdom. She finished her bachelor's degree in Literature at the American University in Cairo and completed a Master's degree in Directing and Film Studies from the University of Sydney. The success of her three short films, as well as the international acclaim of her award-winning 2005 documentary Women Without Shadows, influenced a whole new wave of Saudi filmmakers and made the issue of opening cinemas in the Kingdom a front-page discussion. Within the Kingdom her work is both praised and vilified for encouraging discussion on topics generally considered too taboo, like tolerance, the dangers of orthodoxy, and the need for Saudis to take a critical look at their traditional and restrictive culture.