WADJDA

By Haifa AL-MANSOUR

THE MATCH FACTORY - as SALES All rights, World

Drama - Completed 2012


Festivals
& Awards

La Biennale di Venezia - Venice FF 2012
Orizzonti
BFI London FF 2012
First Feature Competition
Tallinn Black Nights IFF 2012
EurAsia NETPAC award
Dubai DIFF 2012
Muhr Arab Feature Best Actress: Waad Mohammed, Best Film
Busan IFF 2021
Red Sea IFF 2021
Treasures
    • Year of production
    • 2012
    • Genres
    • Drama
    • Countries
    • SAUDI ARABIA, GERMANY
    • Languages
    • ARABIC
    • Duration
    • 100 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Haifa AL-MANSOUR
    • EIDR
    • 10.5240/DA4E-8388-D42A-9027-8D10-H
    • Synopsis
    • Wadjda is a 10-year-old girl living in a suburb of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Although she lives in a conservative world, Wadjda is fun loving, entrepreneurial and always pushing the boundaries of what she can get away with. After a fi ght with her friend Abdullah, a neighborhood boy she shouldn’t be playing with, Wadjda sees a beautiful green bicycle for sale. She wants the bicycle desperately so that she can beat Abdullah in a race. But Wadjda’s mother won’t allow it, fearing repercussions from a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl’s virtue. So Wadjda decides to try and raise the money herself. At fi rst, Wadjda’s mother is too preoccupied with convincing her husband not to take a second wife to realize what’s going on. And soon enough Wadjda’s plans are thwarted when she is caught running various schemes at school. Just as she is losing hope of raising enough money, she hears of a cash prize for a Koran recitation competition at her school. She devotes herself to the memorization and recitation of Koranic verses, and her teachers begin to see Wadjda as a model pious girl. The competition isn’t going to be easy, especially for a troublemaker like Wadjda, but she refuses to give in. She is determined to continue fi ghting for her dreams...