Wadjda

PG

Released Sep 13, 2013

1h 38m

Drama

List

99%

122 Reviews

Tomatometer

88%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

A rebellious Saudi girl (Waad Mohammed) enters a Koran recitation competition at her school and hopes to win enough money to buy her own bicycle.

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Critics Consensus

Transgressive in the best possible way, Wadjda presents a startlingly assured new voice from a corner of the globe where cinema has been all but silenced.

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dustin d

Wadjda does an admirable job showing how religion, modernity and gender roles clash while also balancing respect for the culture.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

جميل جدا قصة من الواقع في كل تفاصيلها

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Wadjda is a story that does brilliantly to lift this issue up to our faces, and allow us to see the world from Muslim women's eyes.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

William L

Wadjda will probably be remembered more for its place in the development of a new international film industry than it will as an innovative film unto itself. One of the first Saudi films shot almost entirely domestically, and by a female director, Wadjda delivers a story that focuses on an independently-minded young girl in the suburbs of Riyadh that doesn't conform to the standards of Islamic orthodoxy, attempting to scrounge together cash to purchase a bike (which carries its own symbolism - a defiance of convention, an escape from conflicted domestic life, and a sense of independence), while her mother raises her independently as social influences pull her marriage apart. In all honesty, the plot is rather predictable, a somewhat conventional adolescent-rebel-against-the-system narrative, but it is ably adapted to a new environment that hasn't been touched upon before. Decent performances, and a depiction of a Middle Eastern suburb that doesn't often get depicted without craters and bullets. (3.5/5)

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

06/07/21

Full Review

william k

A simple story, beautifully told with realism and good eye for details, gives light to the everyday inequalities of life in Saudi Arabia and manages to do so without harshness, but with an uplifting spirit.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

georgan g

Watching women in a different culture deal with their issues feels so intimate.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Haifaa Al-Mansour

Director

Reem Abdullah

Mother

Waad Mohammed

Wadjda

Abdullrahman Al Gohani

Abdullah

Ahd

Ms. Hussa

Sultan Al Assaf

Father

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Sarah Mirk

Bitch Media

Wadjda builds a complex portrait of a place and people around a simple story.

Jan 20, 2021

Full Review

Deborah Ross

The Spectator

Though people will talk about how it breaks boundaries and how pioneering it is, that's not what you most need to know. What you most need to know is that it's fascinating, involving, moving, an entirely excellent film in its own right.

Sep 5, 2018

Full Review

Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

metro.co.uk

Determinedly non-preachy, non-bitter and rapturously uplifting.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 5, 2017

Full Review

Emiliano Basile

EscribiendoCine

Fortunately, Wadjda goes beyond the simple delineation of a quotidian drama about a foreign culture that's hard to understand and does so through the protagonist's hope and optimism. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 7/10

Mar 14, 2023

Full Review

Josh Long

Battleship Pretension

Films like these are insightful and useful instruments for change.

Feb 24, 2021

Full Review

Alex Heeney

Seventh Row

For years, aspiring feminists had Jo March; now, we have Wadjda. [TOP 50 FILMS OF THE DECADE]

Dec 4, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

A rebellious Saudi girl (Waad Mohammed) enters a Koran recitation competition at her school and hopes to win enough money to buy her own bicycle.

Director: Haifaa Al-Mansour
Producer: Christian Granderath, Bettina Ricklefs, Rena Ronson, Louise Nemschoff, Hala Sarhan
Screenwriter: Haifaa Al-Mansour
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Production Co: Razor Film Produktion GmbH
Rating: PG (Smoking|Brief Mild Language|Thematic Elements)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Arabic
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 13, 2013, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 11, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $1.4M
Runtime: 1h 38m

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