WADJDA (2012)

 

Directed by: Haifaa al-Mansour

Starring: Reem Abdullah, Waad Mohammed, Abdullrahman Al Juhani, Sultan Al Assaf, Ahd Kamel, Ibrahim Al Mozael, Nouf Saad, Rafa Al Sanea, Alanoud Sajini, Rehab Ahmed, Dana Abdullilah, Mohammed Zahir

98 minutes

(PG - adult language, adult themes, adult situations)

Country of origin: Saudi Arabia

PLOT:

Wadjda is a 10-year-old girl living in a suburb of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Although she lives in a conservative world, Wadjda is fun loving, entrepreneurial and always pushing the boundaries of what she can get away with. After a fight with her friend Abdullah, a neighborhood boy she shouldn't be playing with, Wadjda sees a beautiful green bicycle for sale. She wants the bicycle desperately so that she can beat Abdullah in a race. But Wadjda's mother won't allow it, fearing repercussions from a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl's virtue. So Wadjda decides to try and raise the money herself. At first, Wadjda's mother is too preoccupied with convincing her husband not to take a second wife to realize what's going on. And soon enough Wadjda's plans are thwarted when she is caught running various schemes at school. Just as she is losing hope of raising enough money, she hears of a cash prize for a Quran recitation competition at her school. She devotes herself to the memorization and recitation of Quranic verses, and her teachers begin to see Wadjda as a model pious girl. The competition isn't going to be easy, especially for a troublemaker like Wadjda, but she refuses to give in. She is determined to continue fighting for her dreams.

TRAILER: