+ First Saudi-Arabian Movie in History
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| The title hero of Haifaa Al-Mansour's Wadjda in the shape of Waad Mohammed |
Wadjda is an extraordinary film for many reasons:
It is the first film ever solely filmed in Saudi-Arabia. It is also the first Saudi-Arabian film directed by a woman.
Wadjda is a girl who lives with her mother and attends school in the capital Riyadh. Her father comes by sporadically, but is also known to be unhappy with the mother for not bearing him any more children and a son in particular. Therefore, he is looking for a new wife. Wadjda's mother struggles to keep her far-away job, but the thing foremost on Wadjda's mind is the beautiful green bicycle that she visits regularly in her favorite shop. Standing between her and the bicycle is the repressive Islamism that rules her country and states that women cannot ride bicycles or they will become barren. And the fact that she cannot afford it.
The film underplays its drama with great effect and stays in the girl's world, as fickle and threatened by collapse from the burgeoning adult Saudi-Arabian reality as it is. The film's impressive director Haifaa Al-Mansour (Women Without Shadows, documentary (2005)) has said; "I decided I didn't want the film to carry a slogan and scream, but just to create a story where people can laugh and cry a little."
I think she has achieved this; audiences do laugh and cry in the company of her Wadjda, and the film was wonderfully bereft of terrible violence or deaths, proving that these ingredients aren't always necessary to create a powerful drama.
It is revelatory being myself from a place that almost couldn't be farther removed from Saudi-Arabia to watch Wadjda, a film that has been praised for its realism in depicting especially women's lives in the country: Total submission and repressiveness is the norm in Saudi-Arabia, where women aren't allowed to drive or be seen uncovered by men; theaters are illegal; singing is illegal, and much, much more. In Wadjda's school, almost everything, down to holding hands, becomes illegal. The inhumane, dangerous Islamist system of state is exposed in some of its horrors in Wadjda, where life is turned into some kind of awful prison analyzed out of the Koran.
Thus Wadjda, in all its underplayed charm, is a clear push for more freedom and women rights in Saudi-Arabia, and I think it is a wonderful film that deserves great applaud for the bravery involved in making it.
Recommended for everyone ages 8 and up.
Wadjda is a Saudi-Arabian-German co-production that has taken 5 (!) years to get made.
It is heightened by great performances from Waad Mohammed in the lead, a character that she owns with her honesty and rascally smirk. Abdullrahman Al Gohani is wonderful as her good friend. Reem Abdullah gives a powerful performance as Wadjda's conflicted mother, and Ahd (La Sainteté, short, director (2013)), - as the only professional among the leads, - is fierce and quite terrifying in the role as Ms. Hussa at Wadjda's school. - A role that stands out as one of the great villains of the last years, although the part is still wholly real and not at all made into a caricature. Al-Mansour's direction is impressive; all of the unproven actors play with seamless ease.
The film is helped by simple, fine cinematography and an equally simple, intelligent score.
Al-Mansour had to direct parts of the film from the back of a van, talking to her cast and crew through a walkie-talkie, because she wasn't allowed to interact with the male cast and crew members in the streets. Publicly, most women in Saudi-Arabia are fully covered (even their faces) in huge black textile bags.
The Saudi government must have allowed the shoot to some degree, and since the film turned out an obvious hit, - although not possible to screen, because the country has no theaters, - they submitted it to the Oscars, thereby officially approving of the film, although it is critical to the country's repressiveness. Unfortunately, Wadjda wasn't nominated, (though I think it should have been).
In any case Al-Mansour is to be complimented on this remarkable achievement SPOILER that ends well in a moving, redemptive scene that offers a welcome dose of hope.
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Budget: Unknown
Box office: 1.3 mil. $ (US only)
= Unknown
What do you think of Wadjda?
Insights into the film and Saudi-Arabia are welcomed
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