Wadjda

Notable for being the first film made in Saudi Arabia directed by a woman, Wadjda is a sweet, simple story about an 11-year old girl wanting to ride a bicycle in a culture that considers it impious for her to do so. Waad Mohammed is fantastic as the rebellious and funny Wadjda, who jokingly asks if she would get seventy bikes in paradise rather than seventy virgins if she was a suicide bomber. Although the film is quite light-hearted (expect no ‘Bicycle Thieves’ devastating neorealism here), it calmly and effectively documents one girl’s plight against female oppression in a noncontroversial way.

Duke’s At Komedia, 23 July 2013

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