Haifaa al-Mansour's endearing tale is as much about marketing as it is about Saudi women's rights
Wadjda – one of 2013's best films so far – deserves its success. To get the formalities out of the way, the first feature entirely shot on Saudi Arabian soil and the first by a Saudi female director has struck blows both for the kingdom's film-makers and its women, thanks to Haifaa al-Mansour's massively endearing tale of a 10-year-old girl prepared to do anything for a bicycle of her own.
We should be careful, though, of praising Wadjda just because of its clutch of firsts. Groundbreaking is a showy word; Al-Mansour photographed in her lime-green jeans and Adidas is an exciting notion of future Saudi womanhood. But it's as much about marketing, about feeding western expectations of progress needed to sell the film, as it is about the rights of Saudi women. Rarely mentioned...
Wadjda – one of 2013's best films so far – deserves its success. To get the formalities out of the way, the first feature entirely shot on Saudi Arabian soil and the first by a Saudi female director has struck blows both for the kingdom's film-makers and its women, thanks to Haifaa al-Mansour's massively endearing tale of a 10-year-old girl prepared to do anything for a bicycle of her own.
We should be careful, though, of praising Wadjda just because of its clutch of firsts. Groundbreaking is a showy word; Al-Mansour photographed in her lime-green jeans and Adidas is an exciting notion of future Saudi womanhood. But it's as much about marketing, about feeding western expectations of progress needed to sell the film, as it is about the rights of Saudi women. Rarely mentioned...
- 7/24/2013
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
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