Emanating from Saudi Arabia, a country where most cinemas and filmmaking were outlawed and adult women are denied basic rights, Haifaa Al Mansour’s profoundly touching WADJDA is a film that comes with a huge amount of weight behind its simple tale of everyday life for a mischievous ten year old girl.

The noteworthy context of Mansour’s film – itself made even more remarkable by the fact that it is the first feature from Saudi Arabia to be directed by a woman – seldom impinges on WADJDA’s story (penned also by Mansour), which overrides the novelty tied to the film’s presence and allows the heartfelt and effortlessly sketched tale to speak for itself.

Marking the acting debut of actress Waad Mohammed, who plays Wadjda with a particularly charming grasp of her conflicted and oppressed character, the film is set in a present day Saudi Arabia steeped in religious rules and stipulations. Wadjda, a nonconformist who transcends these by disregarding her headscarf, wearing converse hi-tops and listening to “evil” pop music, and consistently rejects the strictures put in place by those around her. Deprived of the freedom to speak for themselves, or even carry out mundane tasks such as driving, the women in Saudi Arabia are taught from a young age to conform to the Qur’an and distance themselves from expressing individuality, something that Wadjda is entirely ignorant to.

Delicately and effortlessly directed by Mansour, WADJDA is an assured and understated gem of a film.

Reminded by her severe headmistress that “a woman’s voice is her nakedness”, Wadjda foregoes her peers and does what she chooses. She makes and sells bracelets and mix tapes, displaying a budding entrepreneurial charisma that sees her falling foul of her mother and teachers on numerous occasions. Making a profitable commodification out of her loose association with religious demarcation, Wadjda decides that she wants to buy a bike to race her friend, something that, despite being frowned upon by those who say that’s something only a boy should be doing, requires her to study the Qur’an and consider playing by the rules.

Delicately and effortlessly directed by Mansour, WADJDA is an assured and understated gem of a film. The hilt of the piece is an extremely likable and impressively acted central performance from Mohammad as Wadjda, whose precociousness and defiance towards the authority of a rigid system highlights the scarceness of equality in the country. While it respectfully doesn’t attempt to unpack or even settle issues regarding female passivity or religious constructs, Mansour’s film is a modest and sunny little tale that rarely takes itself too seriously.

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