Wadjda (2012)

Comedy, Drama

Director: Haifaa Al-Mansour
Writer: Haifaa Al-Mansour
Starring: Reem Abdullah, Waad Mohammed, Abdullrahman Al Gohani, Ahd

"DISCOVER WHAT CAN MAKE US HAPPY, BOTH AS MOVIEGOERS AND CITIZENS OF THE WORLD."

The first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia (a country where there are no cinemas) and the first Saudi Arabian film directed by a woman, is a charming and deceptively simple film about a rebellious little girl who dreams of having a bicycle.

Wadjda is a ten-year-old girl living in a suburb of Riyadh who doesn't want to conform to the traditions of the conservative world she lives in – she wears Chuck Taylors under her traditional garb – and although she shouldn't be thinking about wanting a bike – her mother is worried it could ruin her virginity – she starts saving up for a green bike she sees at a local shop she needs to race against Abdullah, a boy from her neighborhood. Just as she is losing hope of raising enough money, she hears of a cash prize for a Koran recitation competition at her school, wich se enters.

Written and directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour, a female filmmaker who had to direct the outdoors scenes in Riyadh via headset, from the back of a van, as she could not publicly mix with the men in the crew, Wadjda is a beautiful little piece of Saudi cinema that takes a hard-to-shake look at the everyday realities of being a woman in a seriously backwards male-dominated society.

Plot summary from IMDb: WADJDA is a 10-year-old girl living in a suburb of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Although she lives in a conservative world, Wadjda is fun loving, entrepreneurial and always pushing the boundaries of what she can get away with. After a fight with her friend Abdullah, a neighborhood boy she shouldn't be playing with, Wadjda sees a beautiful green bicycle for sale. She wants the bicycle desperately so that she can beat Abdullah in a race. But Wadjda's mother won't allow it, fearing repercussions from a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl's virtue. So Wadjda decides to try and raise the money herself. At first, Wadjda's mother is too preoccupied with convincing her husband not to take a second wife to realize what's going on. And soon enough Wadjda's plans are thwarted when she is caught running various schemes at school. Just as she is losing hope of raising enough money, she hears of a cash prize for a Koran recitation competition at her school. She devotes herself to the memorization and recitation of Koranic verses, and her teachers begin to see Wadjda as a model pious girl. The competition isn't going to be easy, especially for a troublemaker like Wadjda, but she refuses to give in. She is determined to continue fighting for her dreams...

Awards: Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 25 wins & 25 nominations.
Runtime: 98 min
PG