This wonderful ground-breaking movie, the first ever made entirely in Saudi Arabia, directed and written by a woman, is a hopeful story of a 10-year-old free-spirited girl who simply wants a bicycle. But in her country, girls don't ride bikes, they don't run, they don't speak loudly, they don't even appear in public without their black robes and head scarves. Yet Wadjda's scarf seldom stays put, her jeans and Converse sneakers peek out from under her robe, and her best friend is a bike-riding boy. In some countries the title is a translation of The Green Bicycle.
Haifaa Al-Mansour made a documentary, Women Without Shadows (2005), about women's roles in Saudi Arabia, and this is her fiction follow-up. The acting, especially by Waad Mohammed and Reem Abdullah as Wadjda and her mother, respectively, is first-rate. I also liked the music by Max Richter (last blogged in Disconnect). You can stream clips from the soundtrack on the amazon page.
The movie is still making its way around our country (here's a list of theaters, but I know at least one date is incorrect). Save this one to your netflix queue. It'll be worth it. And invite a tween girl who won't mind the subtitles to watch it with you. If you don't believe me, 99% (74 of 75) of rottentomatoes critics loved this, and 90% of audiences.
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