Upon seeing the film's trailer, I thought that Wadjda might just be the kind of heartwarming tale that garners award nominations without challenging audiences. Writer-Director Haifaa Al Mansour's film is definitely an underdog story, but it also contains a surprisingly intense depiction of oppression and well-developed characters.
Wadjda (Waad Mohammed), the 11 year-old girl who gives the film its name, is many things. She's a hustler who's naive (or honest) enough to trip up in her exploits. She's a girl who really wants to ride and race a bike. She's funny and sometimes charming, but not immune from the peskiness of her age. She's single-minded in her pursuits while still having the peripheral vision and heart to care about her mother's problems. Wadjda may be as precocious as other young heroines, but Mansour's direction and Mohammed's performance keep her from becoming a cookie-cutter underdog.
As the film explores its characters, it also takes stock of the Saudi Arabia that they inhabit. Class differences play a role in the characters' lives (see: Wadjda's mother's less-educated driver, Abdullah's family's social status allowing him further freedom), but the main characteristic of their society - to these Western eyes, at least - seems to be the casual oppression of women. Wadjda's mother must accept harassment from her driver, the students at Wadjda's all-girls school have to obey strict rules (especially when men are close by), and (through her interactions with Abdullah and her father) Wadjda is forced to understand the harsh differences between female and male existence in Riydah.
The closing scenes in which Wadjda receives the bike from her mother felt - at first glance - to be a bit of an overly cheerful conclusion to a film full of malaise, but this is actually the moment that Al Mansour has been building toward. Wadjda's mother's gradual disenchantment with her lifestyle leads to an unexpected - though thoroughly believable - support for her daughter's rebellious nature. With this action, we learn that Wadjda's mother is both ready to refocus her family life and jettison her male-dominated past. It's an exciting and scary thought that allows a brief moment of satisfaction while keeping Wadjda's victory from turning into a Hollywood ending.
Wadjda may not have the pessimistic realism of something like A Separation, but Al Mansour manages to fit real characters and a portrait of unquestioned contemporary injustice into the palatable underdog framework.
Much of the press related to Wadjda has focused on Al Mansour being Saudi Arabia's first female filmmaker, Saudi Arabia's relative lack of a film culture, and this being Saudi Arabia's first official Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film submission. These are all obviously important to understanding the "importance" of Wadjda, but I wanted to address that in the Side Notes to let Al Mansour's cinematic achievement speak for itself.
The cast - especially young Waad Mohammed - is excellent and entirely believable in their roles.
Crew & Cast
Written & Directed by Haifaa Al Mansour (Women Without Shadows)
Cast
Waad Mohammed - Wadjda
Reem Abdullah - Mother
Abdullrahman Al Gohani - Abdullah
Sultan Al Assaf - Father
Ahd - Ms. Hussa