Wadjda

What a super film! You wouldn't be likely to see that at Cineworld, Wakefield nor — I venture to suggest —  in the new cinema scheduled to replace Wakefield's £3 million market-hall-white-elephant.

Eagle-eyed film fans might have noticed it was shown a few times recently on the Film4 channel which, perhaps, explains our slightly lower attendance this week.

The room was much better than last time and everyone had a good view of the screen. Also, there was  more space to spread out — unfortunately allowing the devil to come among us and turn off the subtitles.

Here's an extract from an interview with director Haifaa Al Mansour reported in the Telegraph:

Director Haifaa Al Mansour told Reuters that Wadjda aims to portray the segregation of women in Saudi Arabia, where they hold a lower legal status to men, are banned from driving and need a male guardian's permission to work, travel or open a bank account.

"It's easy to say it's a difficult, conservative place for a woman and do nothing about it, but we need to push forward and hope we can help make it a more relaxed and tolerant society," she said after her film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, speaking to reporters in English.

She pointed to signs of change in Saudi society and said younger generations were challenging rigid customs and slowly pushing the boundaries of what is considered acceptable.

Under King Abdullah, the Saudi government has pushed for women to have better education and work opportunities and allowed them to vote in future municipal elections, the only public polls held in the kingdom.

"It's opening up, there is a huge opportunity for women now," Al Mansour said, noting that Saudi Arabia entered female athletes for the first time ever at the London Olympics this summer.

 "It is not like before, although I can't say it's like heaven. Society won't just accept it, people will put pressure on women to stay home, but we have to fight."

Al Mansour spoke of the difficulties she faced filming in Riyadh, despite having obtained permission from authorities to do so.

She occasionally had to hide in a van in some of the more conservative areas where locals disapproved of a female film-maker mixing with men on set, and at times had to direct her male actors via walkie-talkie.

Here's an interesting observation from Hannah McGill's BFI review:

“A final slight rub comes from the fact that the film rewards Wadjda’s unconventionality with conventional satisfactions: winning her bicycle money by outdoing her classmates at Koran recitation, and receiving — with a coy simper — Abdullah’s shy declaration that he’d like to marry her when they’re older. The latter is an odd moment. On one level, it’s just cute. But it’s also saddening, in that it lodges the easy friendship between Abdullah and Wadjda within the system of ownership and capitulation that so annoys her. Worse, it risks coyly reassuring us that our difficult heroine is still marriageable, like a spunky Disney princess."

A very high feedback score of 91%:

A	Very moving
A	Very thought provoking about life for women in Saudi Arabia
A	A good insight into the lives of women and how the community is formed. Good performances from all the actors. Most enjoyable.
A	Fascinating insight into Saudi society. Terrific acting by the young girl + inspirational. (The room was rather cold)
A	A really enjoyable film. An insight into a culture that was completely unknown to me. A wonderful little girl who was a natural.
A	A very enjoyable film.
A	The girl and boy were excellent. The headmistress frighteningly realistic. Hopscotch too!
A
A
A	Clever, Intelligent + Lovely!
A	The plight of women was totally harrowing but utterly intriguing. The acting was superb — the film felt very natural: more like a documentary. Thanks for the opportunity to discover these remarkable insights!
A	Very thought provoking
A
A	Moving and enlightening. Well acted and directed. A brave film. Am grateful to be a woman here in Wakefield!
A	Inspiring & shocking!
A	Beautifully made but a difficult watch.
B	Interesting, in many ways demonstrates growing up and challenging expectations is the same in all cultures.
B	Very enjoyable — another good young performer — carrying on from last season.
B	Would like to see more of this kind of film.
B	Very brave to make this film.
B
B	Shocking. Could it be that bad??
B
B
B
B	Interesting film, thought provoking. Some good acting from the young girl. Sad in parts.
B
C	Bit slow, but spunk can get you anywhere.

On-line:

Philip French's review in the Observer also includes a link to a short video interview with Haifaa Al Mansour:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jul/21/wadjda-film-review

Robbie Collin in The Telegraph “A woman’s voice reveals her nakedness,” scolds Wadjda’s teacher, as she and a friend run laughing from a Riyadh sidestreet into their school playground. “What if a man had heard you?” — Well, plenty of men will hear her now.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/venice-film-festival/9511867/Venice-Film-Festival-2012-Wadjda-review.html

Telegraph Haifaa Al Mansour interview:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/venice-film-festival/9517263/Wadjda-director-Saudi-women-have-to-fight.html

IMDB – 7.6 of 10.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2258858/

BFI Film of the week from August 2013:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/film-week-wadjda

Rotten Tomatoes (89% audience rating)
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wadjda_2013/