Wadjda

Wadjda Film Review 

Directed by Haifaa al-Mansour

 2012 ‧ Drama/World cinema ‧ 1h 38m

IMDB     Rotten Tomatoes    Metacritic 

7.5/10             99%                    81% 

My Rating 

✰✰✰✰

Haifaa al-Mansour's film Wadjda is a humble film about a young girl living in Saudi Arabia navigating several roadblocks in her quest to buy the bicycle of her dreams. A very simple plot but told from a perspective people in the West don't usually have access to. Sure we have plenty of "coming of age" films told from a perspective we recognize and can relate to but something very special about this film is how well it is able to make the viewer feel like they are part of the story. There are very few characters but I think this is a good thing since the writer can deeply develop the few characters they have instead of having too many characters at once but with little character development (a trend Western cinema has really gotten worse with recently). New York Times published a movie review about Wadjda and sums up pretty well what I think most of our thoughts are towards this film: "With impressive agility, “Wadjda” finds room to maneuver between harsh realism and a more hopeful kind of storytelling." The realities of Saudi Arabia are harsh but this story is told from a very hopeful and humanizing perspective which we don't get a chance to see very often with our media bombarding us with how oppressed and disenfranchised people (particularly women) in Saudi Arabia are. It shows a tale of a very adventurous girl I'm sure most of us could imagine in our everyday reality here as well. Some of us may have been that girl in fact. 

In general this is a movie that manages to be lighthearted and deals with subjects that are in fact the opposite but from the eyes of a curious young girl. The criticisms I may have are mostly from the fact that my personal taste in films aren't usually more "slice of life" dramas/comedies but I think I'll make an exception for this film. It feels refreshing and empowering in a way to see such dynamic characters presented with really great development. The film has a rather short run time but the only complaint I can think of is sometimes the plot really moved a bit too slowly and made the film feel longer than it actually was. But I think I'm biased in saying this since it seems like longer films are the trend in Hollywood and it's just what a lot of American movie goers are used to. Being the first film to actually be filmed in Saudi Arabia is impressive on its own but what's even more impressive is how charming and genuine this film is considering this was the director's debut film as well. It is well deserving of a 4/5 or around 4.5/5 rating and I think this will be a film I can recommend to other people who are curious about films from Saudi Arabia.