Saudi Arabia

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Wadjda (Saudi Arabia) – The Perfect Coming of Age Film

Wadjda Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

This is your opportunity to see the perfect heartwarming story from Saudi Arabia. In fact, it’s probably your best chance to see a film from Saudi Arabia, as this was the first feature film shot entirely in the country. So go watch it here (rent on Amazon) now.

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Why Watch Wadjda?
  • It’s the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and by a female director!
  • If you love coming-of-age films
  • To experience the what life as a woman is like in Saudi Arabia
  • If you saw Children of Heaven and want to see more similar films!
The Breakdown

The film starts in a girls school in Saudi Arabia. The very first thing you see is a close up of the shoes on the feet of the girls as their names are being taken for register in the morning. The camera passes an array of smart school shoes before settling on a pair of converses. This is how we meet our protagonist Wadjda.

The close up shots don’t stop when we meet Wadjda, as all the scenes of her at school and at home are never shot from far away. Therefore we are never given a complete view of her school or her home, and you rarely get an establishing shot (a shot which allows you to ‘establish’ the setting) of the area she lives in. But this changes as she begins to challenge the authority of her parents and school. Towards the end of the film, these establishing shots are more common. You’ll see a wider view of the school assembly hall, complete shots of the square by their house, and a shot of Wadjda cycling through the town. The whole world frees up just as Wadjda starts breaking boundaries. It’s an subtle way of using camera distance to reflect the restrictive social boundaries.

Religion and Gender Roles

Of course you’ll also witness all the lack of freedom of women in Saudi Arabia in this film. You’ll hear some great quotes, such as:

  • “If you can see them (the men), they can see you. Respectable girls go inside”
  • “Don’t touch the Koran if you are on your period”
  • “A woman’s voice must not be heard by a man outside. Her voice is her nakedness”

These lines are meant to be provocative, but they’re also pretty funny and add to the slightly comic tone of the film. And that’s what makes this film great: it’s a feelgood film but it doesn’t hide the repressive society.

Conclusion and What to Watch Next

Wadjda perfectly walks the line between becoming a heavy political movie and a childish one. As a result, it’s the perfect coming of age film: Wadjda is an awesome character oppressed by the cultural and religious restrictions. The way she stands up to society is amazing. So go and watch it here.

If you want more, I’d first check out another awesome family friendly film from Iran: Children of Heaven. It’s even more heartwarming.

But I’d also recommend checking out The Bicycle Thieves. It’s obvious that Wadjda draws a lot of influences from The Bicycle Thieves. It uses bikes as a symbol of freedom and even shares a similar final shot.

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Saudi Runaway – Sundance Film Festival 2020

Despite reforms from MBS, the current ruler of Saudi Arabia, 1,000 women escape Saudi Arabia each year. Saudi Runaway follows Muna, a typical Saudi Arabian woman trying to make herself one of the 1,000 to escape the oppressive patriarchy. All the footage is shot on her phone camera, often in secret from under her hijab, to document a snippet of her life.

Muna gains our trust right from the start by showing us things we shouldn’t see. She takes us into the crowds of the Hajj pilgrimage circling the Kaaba by capturing the crowds from a phone camera hidden under her veil. She also documents her family secretly in prayer and the patriarchal words her family and fiance say without realizing they’re being filmed. From these secretive observational moments we can start to build a picture of the society and family she lives in and its restrictiveness. We can also feel the risk she’s taking in secretively filming her family. She obviously hasn’t told them about the film as all they’re faces are blurred. Because of the risks she takes and secretive shots she has shared with us, she immediately gains out trust and empathy.

The film strengthens our connection with Muna through a series of video diary entries in which she shares experiences from her life and plans her escape. We hear about the patriarchal oppression she faces: how her husband won’t let her drive and how she can’t go to the supermarket or leave the house without a man. We also hear about her slim chance for escape: she cannot leave the country without a man’s permission in Saudi Arabia, so she has to get married before attempting an escape in the UAE whilst she’s on her honeymoon. Amazingly, she captures all of the tension of her ordeal, even taking a minute to document her final thoughts before she attempts her escape.

The only fault I could give this exciting documentary is the touch of melodrama the European director adds to the raw footage from Muna. In some of the tense moments, the soundtrack feels like it’s emphasizing the emotions more than it needs to. It makes the film feel ‘more produced’ and therefore less intimate and trustworthy by taking away from the realness of the first hand footage shot by Muna. The ‘dear Sue’ addresses in Muna’s video diary also make the film feel more like an act, by recognizing the foreign hand in its creation.

Overall, Saudi Runaway is a documentary that any fans of escape documentaries (see Midnight Traveller) or viewers interested at an inside look of Saudi Arabia should watch.

Head to our Sundance Film Festival Hub for more reviews from the Sundance Film Festival 2020.