BY RAYNALD C RIVERA
DOHA: Wadjda, the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi by the Kingdom’s first woman filmmaker, is probably the most talked about film in the region winning every award from Venice to Dubai.
The numerous applauses at the two-night screening of the film at the Museum of Islamic Art auditorium, which was filled to the brim, reaffirmed the critical acclaim it has enjoyed.
The screening on Thursday and yesterday night was part of Doha Film Institute’s ‘Hekayat Khaleejiya’ aimed at showcasing cinematic voices from the Gulf region.
“I have never expected that the film would enjoy worldwide acclaim. I’m just happy with its success,” Haifaa Al Mansour (pictured) told The Peninsula yesterday.
Despite the accolades, Al Mansour remains well grounded saying the film was inspired by the small hometown where she came from and all she wanted to “tell a story about reaching one’s dreams.”
The endearing film is about a 10-year-old Saudi girl Wadjda who challenges deep-rooted traditions in her quest to buy a bicycle to win a race against her friend Abdullah. Determined to fight for her dreams, she tries everything to raise the money to the point of joining a Quran recitation competition.
The story is simply told but resonates with such power through the honesty of storytelling and the underlying themes that echo the unheard voices of Saudi women behind walls.
“I tried to be as transparent as possible in creating the film,” said Al Mansour who both wrote the story and directed the film.
In a conservative country with no film industry and whose people shy away from the camera, making the film was a big challenge for any director, especially a woman director like Al Mansour.
But for her, being a woman director in Saudi has some advantages, including access into places impossible to reach and stories impossible to tell if the filmmaker is a man.
Even in this region, she believed there is no reason why women should not venture into filmmaking and for them to be successful women filmmakers “should be truthful in telling the story and reach their dreams despite any challenges”.
The film has been shown in a dozen of countries but not in Saudi with the absence of cinemas in the ultra-conservative country.
“But soon it would be available in DVD so I am hopeful it would be seen by more people in my country and around the world. In fact Sony Pictures Classics have acquired the rights to show it internationally,” she said.
She also expressed optimism with some changes going on in her home country.
Two years ago, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz issued a decree allowing women to run for office and vote in municipal elections starting 2015 and just days ago, Saudi lifts ban on women riding bicycles. The Peninsula
