Wadjda (2012)
★★★½ — Wadjda (2012)
There's a moment in Wadjda involving fireworks that stopped me in my tracks. It's quiet, it's brief, and on paper it sounds like nothing. But in the context of everything the film has built around these two characters, this mother and her daughter, it landed like a gut punch wrapped in something warm. That's the kind of film this is. Small gestures carrying enormous weight.
Part of what makes Wadjda so striking is the sheer fact of its existence. Director Haifaa al-Mansour made this as the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, at a time when cinemas in the country were banned. She had to direct portions of it from inside a van, communicating with her crew via radio, because the social rules around men and women mixing in public made it impossible for her to stand on set in certain locations. Just sit with that for a second. The film you're watching was assembled under conditions that most filmmakers couldn't even imagine, and yet it feels assured, considered, and deeply human. That context doesn't inflate the film beyond what it actually is, but it does add a layer to every single frame.
The story itself is simple, and deliberately so. Ten-year-old Wadjda wants a green bicycle. She wants to race her friend down the street. In most parts of the world that's just a childhood story. Here, it's a small act of rebellion, because girls cycling is considered socially taboo. The film never hammers you over the head with that. It doesn't need to. The weight of it is always present in the background, in sideways glances and quiet corrections, while Wadjda herself just gets on with being a kid.
A huge amount of credit for that goes to Waad Mohammed, who plays her. She's an absolute find. Spirited, funny, occasionally infuriating in the best way, she never once feels like a symbol or a mouthpiece. She feels like a real ten-year-old, full of schemes and stubbornness, and that authenticity is what gives the film its emotional core. When things get hard for her, you feel it, because you've spent the whole film just liking her as a person.
The film is beautifully shot too, finding a quiet dignity in the everyday textures of life in Riyadh. Schoolyards, rooftops, family kitchens. There's a warmth to the way it looks at these spaces that never tips into sentimentality. It's honest rather than romantic, and that honesty gives it room to be genuinely moving when it wants to be.
I'll be upfront: the pacing did catch me off guard early on. It's slow. Deliberately, purposefully slow. And there were stretches where I felt the drag. But I've made my peace with that, because the slowness is doing something. It gives the small moments space to settle. It lets you live in this world rather than just observe it passing by. Films like Mustang (2015) work in a similar register, using restraint and everyday detail to tell stories about young women pushing against the walls built around them, and I think both films are stronger for trusting that quietness rather than shouting.
What I keep coming back to is the word "dignity." Wadjda treats its subject, its setting, its characters, and its audience with dignity throughout. It doesn't preach. It doesn't wallow. It doesn't turn Wadjda into a martyr or a poster girl. It just tells her story, and lets you draw your own conclusions about what it means that such a modest dream requires such effort to reach.
Three and a half stars.
It's a small film that carries a big heart, and I'm glad the A-Z World Movie Tour sent me to Saudi Arabia to find it.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2012 | Watched: 2025-09-01
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: MUBI · MUBI Amazon Channel
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Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
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