Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - Wadjda

Waad Mohammed in a scene from 'Wadjda'

As the first feature film to be shot in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (where there are no cinemas), Wadjda immediately should attract attention and this simple yet reflective film is deserving of such interest. Written and directed by Saudi-born but University of Sydney educated Haifaa Al Mansour, the story is centred on 10-year-old Wadjda (Waad Mohammed), a rebellious, fun-loving yet determined girl growing up in a deeply conservative Islamic society. Wadjda longs to own a bicycle and one day sees a new green one delivered to a local shop so she sets about raising the money to purchase her bike through all manner of activities. Her mother has been reluctant to buy it for her fearing the opinion of wider Saudi society which considers a bicycle as dangerous to a girl's virtue. The film captures effectively the divisions and contradictions between men and women in Saudi society and manages to be gently subversive. Wadjda's fund-raising efforts to buy the bicycle include winning a Koran recitation competition at her school and appearing to be the model of conversion and piety despite being considered by her teachers to be an endless source of frustration. 

Shot with a German production team in Saudi Arabia, the director, Haifaa Al Mansour often had to operate out of a production truck using screen monitors to direct as she was not permitted on the street. Her script is partly autobiographical as it draws upon the experiences of some members of her family. An insightful film, sometimes slow moving and in Arabic with English subtitles, Wadjda  provides a window into a society which is at the cross-roads of change.