Saudi Arabia made history in 2012 when Wadjda became the first feature film shot entirely in the country, directed by Haifaa al-Mansour, a woman working in a society that then had no public cinemas. That tension between tradition and change runs through much of what Saudi cinema has since tried to express. See what Macca makes of it below.
Rating: 4.0★
There is a very specific, fascinating subgenre of cinema that blurs the line between documentary and performance, using real-life trauma as a vehicle for on-screen catharsis. I've sat through a fair few of these over the years. Think Salaam Cinema, or films like 1001 Frames, where
Muslim International Film Festival (MIFF)
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
Macca's Must Watch
Where do you even begin? That's the question I kept asking myself as the credits rolled on All That's Left of You, and I still don't have a clean answer. What I do have is the feeling of something sitting heavy in my chest,
Genre Drama
★★★½ — Wadjda (2012)
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