Haifaa Al-Mansour (Wadjda, 2012), Saudi Arabia’s first female director has collaborated with LA-based animation studio ShadowMachine (BoJack Horseman, Robot Chicken) to bring her empowering Miss Camel to screens.
ShadowMachine will develop and produce the project with Al-Mansour and her husband and writing collaborator, Brad Niemann. The LA branch of the studio is currently in production of Youtube Red’s space adventure, Dallas & Robo.
Miss Camel tells the story of female empowerment in this dominantly patriarchal world through Hayla, a teen girl from Saudi Arabia who is desperate to escape her arranged marriage in order to achieve her goal of attending art school outside the country. Scheming to sneak away to college interviews in a neighbouring Gulf state, Hayla makes a startling discovery that she can talk to animals, at her cousin’s wedding. She then finds herself in a friendship with the beautiful camel, Melwah and they travel to Doha together for the ‘Miss Camel beauty pageant’, defying cultural and sexual restrictions.
This project was awarded the $100,000 IWC Filmmaker Award at the Dubai International Film Festival in December.