It can be difficult for us westerners to understand a
culture that appears alien to our own and I suppose that we should not be too critical
of people that live their lives’ differently from the way we do, even if we
don’t necessarily understand there ethnic influences. That’s one of the reasons
I appreciate World Cinema in that it does help me, and hopefully other’s,
accept these differences.
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| Haifaa al Mansour. |
Shot in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wadjda (2012) is the
first film ever to be shot entirely there and by the country’s first female
director Haifaa al Mansour. Although she has a master’s degree in film studies
she had not been allowed to develop her practical skills, as it was only
permissible for her to work on short films and not feature films. Her
experience was to be gained whilst actually working on this live project. It
sets out to show the injustices faced by Saudi woman through the eyes of an 11-year-old
girl. It has a very simple premise by modern film standards in that Wadjda (a
very spirited Waad Mohammed) longs to own a bicycle to allow her to prove that
she can beat her young male friend Abdullah in a cycle race. Two problems
immediately arise, the first is the normal financial problem that she does not
have the money to purchase a bike but the second is far more complicated: women
do not go out on to the streets on there own - let along ride bikes!
Our tomboy heroine is a resourceful wee thing and sets out
to raise the money for the bicycle that she sees in a local shop; it will cost
her the grand sum of 800 riyals (approx. £130), which her mother (TV actress
Reem Abdullah) deems far too expensive. Her task could be made easier however
when she discovers a Koran recital competition that has a cash prize!
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| Two children that just want to race bicycles. |
This challenging and exciting project came to fruition after
al Mansour e-mailed the German film production company Razor Film Produktion
GmbH, a company who had already worked in the Middle East, to find out if they
were interested in her project, they were and the first filming took place in
Saudi in May 2009. There are certain problems within the non-existent film
industry in this country, men and women do not work together in public, women
are not allowed to drive and although the local authorities gave permission
local rules, customs and traditions had to be observed. Which in turn led to
many artistic challenges for our female director, including having to direct
from a ‘distance’ at times via a walky talky or through her assistant male
director. A lot of the narrative had to be filmed inside a school but the
Ministry of Education refused to allow shooting at government schools so they
were forced to find a private school that looked like a public school. On top of all this the Saudi and German crews
took time to integrate but eventually they were happy to learn from each other.
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| Wadjda and her mother. |
The goal of the film
was to refine and inspire the way of thinking regardless of the amount of
people who are with or against it.[1]
Saudi Arabia’s gender segregated attitude to women, where girls like Wadjda get
married off at fifteen and thereafter never appear in public without the black
abaya rope is changing but still has an awful long way to go and the sad part
is that this movie will probably never have an official screening in the
country where it was made, they don’t have cinema’s which have not been allowed
since the 1980’s! Support this worthwhile world cinema project by making sure
you extend your ‘geographical boundaries’ and see this interesting and thought
provoking movie. Out now on DVD and Blu-ray.
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