The Jasper Film Club returns tonight, Jan. 9, with its third offering of the season.
Wadjda follows a young Saudi girl as she skips mischievously through the pitfalls of Saudi society on a quest to buy a bike. Sporting bright converse sneakers under her Abaya, Wadjda shrugs off her teacher’s lectures and her mother’s concerns for her virtue—because what is more important than beating her friend in a bike race?
Good movies entertain us, while exceptional movies entertain us and open our minds to new worlds. It will be up to viewers to decide how entertaining Wadjda is, but if nothing else, the prospect of an empathetic glimpse into such a foreign place should peak most movie buffs’ interests.
But Wadjda is remarkable just as much for the story behind its creation as the story it’s telling. That’s because it’s the first full-length film ever shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, a country with restrictive rules limiting culture.
Along with those strict rules, the country has even stricter rules limiting women’s roles in society, making director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s accomplishment even more impressive.
In an interview with the Guardian, Al-Mansour said during filming—in more conservative neighbourhoods—she would have to direct from inside a van, watching the action on a tiny screen and barking orders into a walkie-talkie.
Whatever the process, the result is a truly unique film; a story directed by a woman and experienced from the point of view of a young Saudi girl, a perspective not present in most other flicks.
Wadjda plays Jan. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Chaba Theatre.
Trevor Nichols
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