Synopsis
An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Quran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.
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Cast
- Reem AbdullahMother
- Waad MohammedWadjda
- Abdullrahman AlgohaniAbdullah
- Ahd KamelMs. Hussa
- Sultan Al AssafFather
- Dana AbdullilahSalma
- Rehab AhmedNoura
- Rafa Al SaneaFatima
- Sara AljaberLeila
- Noura FaisalAbeer
Recommendations
- 100
The Playlist
One of the best films of the year. - 90
Village Voice
A simple, solid, deeply affecting film. - 90
The Dissolve
Wadjda is an object of stark beauty, an oasis of free-spirited cinema emerging from the desert. - 80
The Guardian
You'd need a heart of stone not to be won over by Wadjda, a rebel yell with a spoonful of sugar and a pungent sense of a Riyadh society split between the home, the madrasa and the shopping mall. - 80
The Telegraph
Modest as it may look, this is boundary-pushing cinema in all the best ways, and what a thrill it is to hear those boundaries creak. - 80
Empire
As simple and charming as you could wish for, this is a genuinely pioneering debut from a female Saudi filmmaker and a striking piece of work by any standards. - 80
Total Film
Al-Mansour carefully dodges easy uplift, but her message of hope to future generations of Saudi women is clear. - 80
Time Out
An Arabic-German coproduction, it is a rare movie shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, which has no cinema industry to speak of, and the first feature by a female filmmaker from that country. Forbidden from mixing with the men in her crew, Al-Mansour often directed via walkie-talkie from the back of a van.
