Wadjda (2012) on Netflix
Wadjda, a ten-year-old girl in Riyadh, wants the green bicycle she passes every day so she can race her friend Abdullah. Her mother refuses, so Wadjda tries to raise the money herself.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.5/1022,579 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes99%
Trailer
Plot summary
Wadjda is ten years old and lives with her mother in a suburb of Riyadh. She passes a green bicycle at a store on her way to school and wants it so she can race her friend Abdullah, a boy from the neighborhood. The bicycle costs SR800. Her mother refuses to buy it, afraid of the trouble a girl on a bicycle would bring in their society. Wadjda starts earning the money herself, selling mixtapes, braiding bracelets for classmates and running errands for an older student. The strict headmistress catches her at these schemes. Her mother is worried: her husband's family wants him to take a second wife, since she can have no more children. Then Wadjda hears of a Quran recitation competition at school with a cash prize.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Wadjda (2012)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Because she could not be seen publicly mixing with the men in her crew, director Haifaa al-Mansour shot Wadjda on the streets of Riyadh from the back of a van, communicating with her team by walkie-talkie and watching the actors on a monitor.
- Wadjda was the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and the first feature-length film made by a female Saudi director.
- Wadjda was chosen as Saudi Arabia's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, the first time the country had ever submitted a film for the Oscars, and it was not nominated.
- Director Haifaa al-Mansour says Wadjda took five years to make, most of it spent hunting for financial backing and filming permission because she insisted on shooting in Saudi Arabia for authenticity.
- Al-Mansour says her original screenplay for Wadjda was much bleaker than the finished film; she decided she did not want it to carry a slogan, but to tell a story people could laugh and cry at a little.
- Haifaa al-Mansour based the character of Wadjda on one of her nieces and on her own experiences growing up.
