Wadjda

2012 ‘وجدة‎‎’ Directed by Haifaa al-Mansour

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...

Reem Abdullah Waad Mohammed Abdullrahman Algohani Ahd Sultan Al Assaf Dana Abdullilah Rehab Ahmed Rafa Al Sanea Sara Aljaber Noura Faisal Talal Loay Sami Hazim Mohammed Zahir Nouf Saad Faoziah Alyaaqop

Alternative Titles

Das Mädchen Wadjda, Den grønne cykel, La bicicleta verde, Vihreä polkupyörä, To apagorevmeno podilato, La bicicletta verde, Shôjo wa Jitensha ni Notte, 와즈다, Den grønne sykkelen, Dziewczynka w trampkach, O Sonho de Wadjda, Vađda, Yaджда, Den gröna cykeln, Zeleno kolo, Vecide, 腳踏車大作戰

drama

98 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Adam Cook ★★★ 7

Wadjda is a film of important firsts. Not only is it the first film to be shot entirely within Saudi Arabia’s borders but more crucially it is the first Saudi film made by a female director. The significance of its production cannot be overstated but its social importance is perhaps greater than the film itself which is an inspirational yet ultimately conventional coming-of-age drama.
Waad Mohammed stars as the titular, Wadjda, a headstrong ten-year old girl with a rebellious and entrepreneurial streak who makes money from making bracelets whilst dreaming of owning a bicycle. However, in Saudi society such aspirations are frowned upon for young women who should know their place and not be heard. A Koran recital contest at…
Review by mubarak ★★★★★ 2

I know no one cares but i just rewatched this and i wanna talk about this movie a bit.
It's the first ever Saudi feature film to be shot entirely in Saudi Arabia (and the filmmaker is a female). It's about wadjda, a 10 year old girl who has yet to fully comprehend the radical traditions of her country and as she slowly start to realize them she finds them unsuitable for her. She doesn't try to revolt against anything, she just looks away because after all, she's 10. She sets a goal to buy a bike so she can race her friend from the neighborhood, and that's when her journey starts.
The plot seems so simple to make but…
Review by Rida ★★★ 4

Wadjda is one of those films with a reputation that precedes any question of its quality. It's the first film by a Saudi woman and the first film to be shot in Saudi Arabia, but oddly enough, it's thoroughly Western in both its narrative and outlook.
Thus combined, Wadjda becomes a film that is at once engaging and predictable, and depressing and uplifting in equal measure. The central performance by Waad Mohammed is the life and soul of Wadjda, and although the adults often falter in their roles, Mohammed and Abdulrahman Algohani, the boy who plays her only friend, play wonderfully off each other.
The film is quietly subversive due to Wadjda's adroit manipulation of the society she lives in,…
Review by Rethaam ★★★★ 1

im still trying to have a fvcking BICYCLE
Review by Jaime Rebanal ★★★★ 4

When you think about how much Wadjda has achieved in history, it's quite a miracle that this movie was made. Aside from being the first film shot entirely within Saudi Arabia, it is also the first film to have been directed by a Saudi woman. But even to think that it will seem conventional from an outsider's perspective of Saudi culture, there's a much greater level to which Wadjda speaks for because of what ground it breaks for their own society. It's a film that came right out from a country where we know that cinema in general had been banned for years, but the transgressive nature behind what we already can see as a simple coming-of-age tale is among…
Review by Paul Elliott ★★★★

Written and directed by Haifaa al-Mansour, and the first full-length movie made by a female Saudi director, Wadjda is a straightforward tale of a ten-year-old girl living in the Saudi Arabian capital. It’s communicated with comprehensibility, and al-Mansour’s artistic style along with the employment of a mainly unprofessional cast brings to mind neorealism. It’s the first film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, and despite labouring under the constraints of a rigorously tyrannical culture, it feels enlightening without feeling explanatory; operating more on observation than on a standard reliance of narrative.
Review by Edgar Cochran ★★★½ 8

A very simple story, but told with a big heart, Wadjda is a film entirely shot in Saudi Arabia about an intrepid girl who seeks to raise money participating in her school's Koran recitation competition in order to beat his annoying neighbour in a bicycle race. That's the entire central plot, but around it, several relevant elements about a repressed and fundamentalist society lie between frames, and come out to the surface very explicitly.
Relevant to say and trascendent to point out, Wadjda has historically national relevance in Saudi Arabia for being the first feature made by a female filmmaker. Around the main character Wadjda, we see the Muslim culture very explicitly and the current cultural state regarding the appreciation…
Review by davidehrlich ★★★½

the first female-directed saudi arabian film. smart, affable, appreciably complex (which is a relief given the tone of the first act). wholly commendable, if never particularly involving.
Review by <Todd> ★★★½

"Your stupid behavior will haunt you forever." -Hussa,
-FC Anniversary Scavenger Hunt (13/21): boxd.it/7uQXe "In honor of broadening one's horizons, pick a movie from a country you haven't seen a film from yet! (Theo) "
This is a great film with an inspiring story behind it.
Haifaa al-Mansour's direction is perfect for this intimate story of a girl trying to get a bike set against the gendered culture of Saudi Arabia. The film looks pretty and the performances are heartfelt. It's a challenging script because it's trying to do a lot in a short period of time but it never feels clumsy. On occasion the criticism might be too on the nose for my tastes but as a whole this really impressed and entertained me.
Review by StormofCuteness ★★★★ 7

This film gets an extra half star just because of the unbelievable obstacles to it even existing! I felt like a voyeur getting this inside look into the lives of girls and women in Saudi Arabia.
As well I should, since this is the first feature length film ever fully shot there AND the first directed by a woman. It's heartbreaking to realize that even though this is the 1st film ever submitted by its country for Best Foreign Picture Oscar, there were no public cinemas there to see it!
Anyway, the young star of the film is an absolute delight as is her neighborhood friend who happens to be a boy. Her indefatigable spirit makes this heartwarming and heartbreaking at the very same time. Writer and director, Haifaa al-Mansour obvious love for her story and her bravery in telling what may seem simple to Western audiences is clearly a triumph on all the levels that matter.
Review by al paciknows ★★★★

"that's a real mustache, a falcon could sit on it"
Review by Scott Anderson ★★★★ 2

March Around the World Challenge Film #7 - Saudi Arabia
There is nothing flashy about the film Wadjda, a simple story told in a simple fashion, a premise that to some may sound silly and uninteresting if the setting or the circumstances faced by the characters aren't taken into account. A young girl living in Saudi Arabia is being raised in a world that holds her gender to a set of strict, conservative rules, but she clearly wants more out of life than what is expected of her. One day she spots an item that she wants more than anything in the world, something shiny and beautiful and perfect: a brand new green bicycle.
What the bicycle symbolizes is more…

Recent reviews

Review by Calinope ★★★★

The power that spunky little girls have...iconic
Review by hanna ★★★★

ugh women are so powerful
Review by Hala El Yamani ★★★★

My heart is with every girl who lives in a society as such, and I hope they all become Wadjda.
Review by minwa ★★★★

lowkey ashamed that those 8-10 year old girls speak arabic & recite the quran better than i do BUT i watched this without subtitles.. i’’m prouder of that than I should be...
ANYWAYS this was lovely 💚
Review by Benjamin To ★★★★

A simple premise told with expert craftsmanship and a deep sense of empathy. It's also the first feature-length film made by a Saudi Arabian woman director - which is really rad.
Review by tomverse ★★★

Should have been right up my alley but I found it far too slow paced, predictable, dull. Nothing interesting about it.
Review by drchrishong ★★★★

An absolute joy to see something that is so rarely seen. And from a perspective that so rarely heard. It covers the bases of women dependency on drivers, religious importance and a snap shot of life as a girl growing up in Saudi Arabia.
Review by zai ★★★★★

i just think wadjda is a queen
there is a lot i want to say about this movie but I have no clue how to articulate it
Review by sasbey ★★★★

I lovedddddddddd this
Review by Tyler ★★★★½

It's easy for me to chafe at the facts presented in this film—girls not being allowed to ride bikes, women having to serve food at parties they're not allowed into, girls being accused of lesbianism for maybe touching each other's ankles—but the best and most admirable part of Wadjda is that it was made at all. And when you think about the struggles and draconian measures the director has to juggle just to present this story—which isn't preachy or exploitative; it's just a presentation of daily life—the appreciation for the film itself heightens. Social issues aside, though, Wadjda is a great movie. The cast is great, and Wadjda herself is a spunky, likeable character. A thought-provoking way to start a morning.
Review by Glen O'Brien ★★★★

Wadjda is significant because it's the first feature film to be shot in Saudi Arabia and the first made by a Saudi woman, Haifaa Al-Mansour. Al-Mansour had to direct the street scenes from inside a van via walkie-talkie because she wasn't allowed to interact with the male crew, and such repressive conditions are a theme of the film's narrative. Wadjda is an intelligent and resourceful 10 year old girl (played by Waad Mohammed) in a suburb of the Saudi capital Riyadh, who knows her own mind but is willing to work the system of the traditional religious culture that surrounds her in order to get what she needs. She sets herself a goal of buying a bicycle, even though a…
Review by bedhairday ★★★½

The back story and behind the scenes of this film is amazing and the fact that it was shot in Saudi Arabia by a female director. I’m intrigued by all that and also had a smile on my face by the end of it.