Wadjda (2013)

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Saudi Arabia has a desert climate, and most people have good living conditions, but men are very dominated by the family. Wadjda is a 12-year-old girl, she is very active, and different from other girls; she wears jeans and skate shoes. She likes to listen to love songs. In Saudi Arabia, women need to wear the headscarf to cover their faces when they go out. Wadjda also should wear the headscarf when she goes to school, the principle has the conversation with Wadjda about her headscarf many times. One day, some friends come to Wadjda's house, but women cannot meet with them; Wadjda and his mother just leave the food at the door. Onetime Wadjda put her name on the family tree, but the second day his father takes it off. Women's names are not allowed to put on the family tree. Women cannot drive, so they have drivers; Wadjda's mother is late to work one day because she has trouble with her driver. Wadjda wants to learn and buy a bike but in their society, women cannot ride a bike. She starts earning money and learns ride bike secretly. Her mother rejects her many times to buy a bike. Finally, her father married to someone else, her mother is so sad and thinks she should make Wadjda happy, so she buys a bike for her.

Wadjda is the story of a little girl living in Saudi Arabia. One day, a boy rides by her on his bike and she chases after him only for him to tease her and say "Catch me if you can." After this, all she wants is a brand new green bicycle that she sees for sale on her way home. The main reason she wants the bike is so she can race the boy that teased her, Abdullah, and beat him. When she asked her mom about buying a bike, she says no and that women don't ride bikes. Wadjda does not care what other people think and begins trying to save up money to purchase the bike. Eventually, Wadjda enters into a school Koran recitation contest to win the prize money and buy a bike. She spends a lot of time preparing for this competition and eventually wins the prize money. When she tells everyone she is going to buy a bike, the school then donates the money instead of giving it to Wadjda. At the very end of the film Wadjda is very sad that she can't purchase her bike. For the happy ending, Wadjda's mom buys her a bike and she beats Abdullah in a race. Overall I really enjoyed this film and thought that the simple story about a girl wanting a bike used to express women's rights is really well thought out and beautiful.

In the this film, it showed that women do not have as many rights in Saudi Arabia as they do in the United States. It was very interesting to get a different perspective of their culture. The main character, Wadja, was trying to save up for a bike to race her friend. Throughout the film we saw the way of life that the women live. We learned about marital customs and how strict the women's rules were to live their life. Overall, I liked this film. It made me very happy when Wadja got her bike in the end. This shows us that Wadja's perseverance throughout the film pays off.

In my opinion, Wadjda was one of the best foreign films I've seen thus far. I really appreciate films, especially those from other countries, that have a really strong female protagonist, and this film was no exception. It was even entertaining to see the establishing shots of her battered-up sneakers as opposed to every other girl's simple black shoes, to show how she was different from those who conformed. The story revolved around the titular character, Wadjda, a young girl that questioned the roles imposed upon her by society. Although it was against sharia law, her one main goal was to buy a bike in order to race her friend. She loses hope when she is unable to save enough money on her own, but she soon hears about a Qaran recitation competition at her school, where the winner is able to win a cash prize. In the hopes of obtaining her bike, she enters the competition. She ends up winning, but the headmaster donates the money to Palestine instead as she discovers that Wadjda was simply trying to buy a bike. The movie ends on a sweet note, with Wadjda finding out her mom has bought the bike for her anyway, and she is able to race her friend. I'd give this film a solid 5 stars.