Wadja

Wadjda
Fri 1/10 6:30; Sat 1/11 4:00 & 9:00; Sun 1/12 5:00; Mon 1/13 9:00; Tue 1/14 6:30; Wed 1/15 9:00; Thur 1/16 6:30

Dir: Haifaa Al-Mansou /2013 / Saudi Arabia, Germany / Arabic with English subtitles / 98 min / DCP

Don’t miss this chance to see what was a major crowd pleaser at the last Olympia Film Festival. Director Haifaa al-Mansour’s Wadjda is a landmark film on two counts. It’s the first time a Saudi woman has directed a feature film and it’s the first full-length movie shot entirely in Saudi Arabia. But it won’t be seen there: the country does not have any public cinemas. Director Mansour left a dead-end job at an oil company, studied filmmaking in Sydney, and returned to the Middle East to practice her craft. At times, she was forced to direct her male actors by walkie-talkie from a van. Dreams of freedom are at the heart of her film, a neo-realist look at life in Riyadh. An eleven-year-old girl, Wadjda, covets a shiny green bicycle in a shop window, but her parents smother her hopes with reproofs. In their pious community, girls aren’t allowed to ride bikes. Young Wadjda must resort to dubious means to raise the money on her own.