Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentSaudi director Shahad Ameen‘s feminist fable “Scales” has been selected as Saudi Arabia’s official candidate for the Oscar in the international feature film category.“Scales” draws on Arabic folklore about a young woman named Hayat – played by newcomer Basima Hajjar – who rebels against the tradition in her fishing village of sacrificing female children to monstrous mermaids lurking in the sea.