Hijra (2025)
Shahad Ameen announced herself with Scales (2019), a stark black and white fable about a girl marked out by her community, which premiered in Critics' Week at Venice and marked her out as one of the most distinctive new voices in Saudi cinema. Six years on, she trades that film's mythic seascapes for the open road, but keeps her central concern intact: a young girl pushing against the rules a society has written for her.
Hijra follows three generations of Saudi women across the country, structured around the pull of the Hajj, and reaches UK audiences as part of the second Muslim International Film Festival. It is a road movie with a social conscience, using the journey itself to map the distance between the women who set the rules and the girls expected to live by them.
Hijra (2025), directed by Shahad Ameen presents itself as a beautifully shot and gripping road adventure right from the off. Following twelve-year-old Janna and her strict grandmother Sitti as they search for Janna's rebellious sister Sara, the film unfolds against the sacred backdrop of the Hajj pilgrimage. But it's far more than just a physical journey; it serves as a poignant social commentary on faith, family, and the rigid gender expectations placed upon women in Saudi Arabia.
Visually, it's a real treat, and it was lovely to see such a stunning variety of landscapes, taking us from the sacred paths of Mecca all the way to the snow-capped mountains of Tabuk.
The characters are rich and deep enough to easily carry the runtime, but the absolute standout for me was Ahmed. He plays this roguish outlaw who, for reasons he never quite explains, sacrifices his own freedom to help Sitti and Janna on their desperate quest. His dynamic with Janna is incredibly warm and provides a much-needed softness to the film's tense atmosphere. I absolutely loved the detail of him singing a Saudi version of Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry" on the road; it paints him as this transcendent, almost mythical figure of freedom in his own right, and it's a brilliant touch that elevates the whole picture.
My only real gripe, and the reason it doesn't get a much higher score, is the sheer incompleteness of it all. Just as the film hits its emotional stride, it ends incredibly abruptly, feeling a bit like a Netflix movie that ran out of time. We never get a proper conclusion to Ahmed's story, we never actually see the father, and the entire "missing Sara" saga is left frustratingly hanging.
I was fully prepared to give this a much stronger score because the foundation is so brilliant, but these underdeveloped plotlines really do drag it down. Still, it remains a visually stunning and emotionally resonant piece of cinema that is well worth your time.
For all that it leaves unfinished, Hijra stays with me as a film of real beauty and feeling, and it confirms Shahad Ameen as a director worth following closely. I just wish I had been given the ending these characters deserved, and I will be there for whatever she makes next in the hope of finding it.
Reviewed from a press screener for the Muslim International Film Festival (MIFF), where Hijra screens during the 2026 edition, 2 to 5 July.
Related on Movies With Macca
More from Muslim International Film Festival (MIFF): Birds of War (2026), Ghost School (2025), Once Upon a Time in Gaza (2025)
More from the 2020s: Look Back (2024), The Whale (2022), All That's Left of You (2025)
More drama: Summer School, 2001 (2025), Silent Rebellion (2025), My Daughter's Hair (2025)
