2012 ‘وجدة’ Directed by Haifaa al-Mansour
An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Quran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.
Razor Film Produktion FFA Highlook Communications Group Rotana Film Production Dubai Entertainment and Media Organization Abu Dhabi Film Commission ILB Investitionsbank desLandes Brandenburg
腳踏車大作戰, To apagorevmeno podilato, Den grønne cykel, Den grønne sykkelen, La bicicleta verde, O Sonho de Wadjda, Das Mädchen Wadjda, Vihreä polkupyörä, La bicicletta verde, Shôjo wa Jitensha ni Notte, Dziewczynka w trampkach, Vađda, Yaджда, Den gröna cykeln, Zeleno kolo, Vecide, 와즈다
Faith and religion Moving relationship stories Underdogs and coming of age family, emotional, touching, emotion or kids school, teacher, student, classroom or classmates religion, church, faith, beliefs or spiritual emotional, emotion, family, moving or feelings surfing, teenager, friendship, kids or adolescents Show All…
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,…
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…
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.
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.
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…
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.
Simple in structure and light on narrative drama, Wadjda is an exercise in observation and trusting your characters and actors to engage the audience. Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) is a plucky young girl determined to buy an expensive bike to race against her friend Abdullah. It wouldn't surprise me if Wadjda was semi-autobiographical; writer-director Haifaa al-Mansour clearly having the same level of daring and intelligence to pull off the first feature film by a Saudi woman and the first filmed entirely in Saudi Arabia.
Maybe a little bit De Sica, a little Truffaut, perhaps even some Kor-eeda, but definitely an exciting voice in world cinema. I look forward to checking out al-Mansour's latest film, The Perfect Candidate, for another taste of Saudi culture.
The story of this film’s production alone, in which Haifaa Al-Mansour was forced to direct her own movie from inside a van off-set and avoid the attention of Saudi morality police, is deserving of its own move.
An Accomplishment of a Film
Not only was it the first feature film to be shot entirely in the Kingdom with an all-Saudi cast, in addition to being the first film to be directed by a Saudi woman, it even sought universal acclaim for its bold defiance of gender and religious codes. Admittedly, I was not particularly involved in some parts of it due to not being fully acquainted with its context, but following Wadjda’s journey to get the bicycle she wanted was an experience I didn’t know would be this powerful. We absolutely needed that ending.
Director al-Mansour has crafted a moving portrait of subjugated subjects in the most meticulous way possible, which managed to make Wadjda (2012) bring neorealism to the table while still being lightheartedly accessible to most of its viewers. A great prelude to a society where cinema itself is limited.
A film from a country where cinema itself is banned, Wadjda attempts to portray the everyday struggle women undergo in the highly conservative nation of Saudi Arabia that restricts women from driving, going out unveiled, talk to men in public or disobeying their husbands, and the film captures it all in a very delicate fashion by director Haifaa al-Mansour, the nation's first female filmmaker.
Set in Riyadh & shot entirely on location, the story follows an 11-year old girl who wants a bicycle for herself but is denied by her mother as girls riding bikes is considered culturally immoral and who herself is distracted coz her husband wants to marry again so that his new wife can provide him with a…
