Mary Shelly
by Karen Pecota

Saudi Arabian director Haifaa Al Mansour feels fortunate to be supported by a strong female team on her project MARY SHELLEY.  Written by Emma Jensen with additional writing by Mansour, in collaboration with two female producers, a female protagonist, a female editor, and a female composer, Mansour is proud to direct the story of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, author of Frankenstein because she can identify with Mary's struggle to find her voice. As a young Saudi female, Mansour directs a narrative relatable to many women around the globe.

Producer Amy Baer said, "I was astounded that Mary was only 18 when she created and wrote Frankenstein and I felt that this was a story that had to be told."

Producer Alan Moloney adds, "The fact that Mansour is a woman who has grown up in Saudi Arabia in an environment and a landscape where women don't have the same rights as they do in Western Culture, and she has had to as an artist, fight and struggle to have her own voice heard in much the same way Mary Shelley did." He continues, "There are very clear parallels between her life experience and the experience of Mary Shelley 200 years ago so that brings a real contemporary resonance to the piece."

Mansour having to fight for every single thing that she has ever achieved, she has a very real understanding of a woman that has a story to tell but society is not letting her tell it, explains actor Douglas Booth (Percey Shelley). To this day Mary's writings are revered centuries later as tribute to her tenacity. Mary is honored for her accomplishments in Mary Shelley.

Synopsis:

Author of one of the world's most famous Gothic novels Frankenstein, has a story to tell. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Elle Fanning) meets renowned romantic poet Percey Bysshe Shelley (Douglas Booth). Their mind and spirits are kindred. They are bound together by their natural chemistry and advanced ideas that go beyond the polite society of their time.

Mary and Percy fall in love and run away together to escape the unfavorable support of the Mary's educated family. Mary's half-sister, Claire (Bel Powley) joins the two kindred spirits on a life journey not as glamorous as the fairy tales the two girls loved to read about. 

The three flee to Lord Byron's (Tom Sturridge) estate at Lake Geneva. It is while at this residence Mary births her writings about Frankenstein when a challenge is given to all the houseguests to write a ghost story. At the age of 18, Mary is forced to take drastic measures to protect her story, her work and her identity as a female writer.