The total lack of films that come out of Saudi Arabia make Wadjda, a Saudi
film by Haiffa Al-Mansour, instantly alluring. Haiffa Al-Mansour is already accredited
as being the first successful woman filmmaker in Saudi Arabia’s history.
This is very much Al- Mansour’s film. She charms the viewer with the common everyday struggles of the Saudi woman, and rather than address the issues in a combative way, her approach is warm, even cute. This draws us into her characters and provides us with some heartfelt laughs along the way.
The precocious 10-year Wadjda is growing up in Riyadh where she
wants nothing more than a shiny new bicycle, but not only is she a little short
on riyals, in Saudi Arabia women do not to ride bicycles. Saudi moral code bans
woman from driving, going out in public unveiled, living unaccompanied, leaving
the country alone, and opposing their husbands’ orders in any way.
Small details make grand impressions: In an all girls school teenage
students paint their toenails, a sin, and are publicly vilified for it. The
mere possibly that workmen half a mile away might see
school girls playing in their courtyard forces all the girls to rush inside,
lest they be judged impure. Pubescent girls are considered tainted and must use
a tissue just to flip the pages of Koran.
Wadjad’s truly beautiful mother spends much of her time perfecting
her appearance only then to have to then cover herself with a full hijab. She
is never openly defiant; defiance is impossible, but even thought she is
obeying age old traditions that we’d assume would have dulled any emotional
protest, through the mother’s submission we get a brief glimpse of her
distress, the natural human emotional distress that no amount of “aged
tradition” or religious subjugation has the right to inflict on any human
being.
In a country where cinemas are banned, Riyadh is not exactly a
city where women can just go around shooting films. Females mixing with male
co-workers would bring dire consequences. Al-Mansour shot the film anyway, directing
much of it from the back of a van, and the result is a film representing the
triumph of the defiant feminine spirit, in all forms.
8/10
