Wadjda

Wadjda (2012)

---

PG - 98 min - Drama - 5 September 2013
Big Blue Sky Rating : 7.8/10

---

Director : Haifaa Al-Mansour
Writers : Haifaa Al-Mansour
Stars : Waad Mohammed, Reem Abdullah, Abdullrahman Al Gohani, Ahd

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...

My hero

One thing that makes this movie stands out is the fact that it is entirely based in Saudi Arabia.

Regardless what one thinks of that country, be that knowledge or just stereotyping, it has a culture that is very different than that of what the western audience is accustomed to.

So he have a heroine who is your typical rebel teenage girl, who has realised that being a woman can be challenging and she therefore must give her fight to survive. The story revolves around an utterly sinful desire this young revolver has: to buy and ride a bicycle. To go about that, she must overcome her mum's objections, the shopkeeper's and pretty much everyone she is acquainted with.

Unprepared to simply accept fate, she is prepared to do whatever it takes to ride that bicycle. Quirky and witty, this is a delight and one should not allow any preconceived notions of Arabic culture to stand in the way of enjoying this pleasurable debut.

Wadjda is a hero in any culture.

Watch Wadjda Trailer :

OR