First, let it be said that Wadjda is well worth watching because you never see feature films coming out of Saudi Arabia. But let it be admitted, too, that it is pretty short on dramatic effect. Not much holds you from one scene to the next, and there are stretches that might leave you nodding off to sleep.
But what stood out for me especially was the social context, which baffled me at a number of places. The girl's father returns home from ... I didn't understand quite where. Why had he left? Why was he returning? Was he returning as a normal father, to the home where he lives with his wife and daughter, or was it going to be a just a flying visit? Saudis may have an instinctive understanding of what was going on, but I didn't. Later there is a man playing a video game in the living room. I couldn't make out who he was. Nothing in the dialogue seemed to help. He didn't look like the father. Why he was there and why he left was a mystery. The father apparently was thinking of taking a second wife, but his plan didn't seem to be to keep both wives in one house. I then thought he would be planning to split his time between two households. But at the end of the story he announces (not even to his wife's face, the dirty coward) that he is getting married, and this turns out to mean he's completely abandoning Wadjda and her mother. Is that acceptable in Saudi Arabia? He tells the girl to tell her mother that he loves her. What? He loves her, but he throws her away because the first child she bore for him was only a girl, and now she is unable to have another. What good is a woman who can't bear boy children? Love her or not, she is worthless, a well that has run dry. Another puzzle for me had to do with two girls in trouble at school for "committing a sin." All I could see was that one of them was drawing with a black marker on her ankle, like a tattoo, which the school principal didn't even see. Their "sin" was a mystery to me, as was why that episode was included in the story. It's all very bizarre.
I'm all for trying to understand each other's culture, but I have to say that I've never seen a more disgusting culture than the one portrayed in this movie. There are just no words for the treatment of women. "Keep your voices down, girls. You don't want the men in the other room to hear you." "Girls, why are you here? The men working on the building next door can see you. Get inside!" And on and on. The system seems to set women and girls up as breeding cattle, penned in and at the service of their men. Wadjda's mother's only interest in her future seems to be to "marry her off" to somebody. I have to say that the overall obsession with sex in society is horrible, worse than Western pornography, not because it is too open about sex, but because most of life seems to revolve around sex, and in particular keeping it in chains -- for the female half of the population. Another repulsive feature of Saudi life is how religion of the very worst kind dominates, the mere memorizing of passages from scripture, passages that have no inherent appeal, not a shred of enlightenment, humanity or poetry, only straightforward instructions about obedience and punishment. And on the edges of official religion we get glimpses of superstition, such as "Don't leave your Koran open, or the devil will spit in it." Ycchh!
Be prepared to like the little girl, who is very appealing. Don't expect, though, to see a girl of great courage calling into question important issues in the Saudi way of life. Her rebellion (too strong a word) is pathetically modest. She doesn't really understand what she is doing. You'll enjoy seeing her male friend, too, who is generous and truly likes her, although I did find it a little weird when he asked, "Wadjda, you know I want to marry you when we get older." There was nothing timid or tentative about it. He wasn't making a request, not asking for her consent; it seemed like simply making a claim, and that she would have very little to say about it when the time comes for him to get what he wants. So even though the boy is likable, the seeds of an ugly dominance are there and, as someone else has commented here, in a few years he will be a typical Saudi man with his foot on the neck of all the women in his circle. So enjoy her, enjoy him, enjoy their friendship, but be prepared to loathe pretty much all of what you see of Saudi society.
But what stood out for me especially was the social context, which baffled me at a number of places. The girl's father returns home from ... I didn't understand quite where. Why had he left? Why was he returning? Was he returning as a normal father, to the home where he lives with his wife and daughter, or was it going to be a just a flying visit? Saudis may have an instinctive understanding of what was going on, but I didn't. Later there is a man playing a video game in the living room. I couldn't make out who he was. Nothing in the dialogue seemed to help. He didn't look like the father. Why he was there and why he left was a mystery. The father apparently was thinking of taking a second wife, but his plan didn't seem to be to keep both wives in one house. I then thought he would be planning to split his time between two households. But at the end of the story he announces (not even to his wife's face, the dirty coward) that he is getting married, and this turns out to mean he's completely abandoning Wadjda and her mother. Is that acceptable in Saudi Arabia? He tells the girl to tell her mother that he loves her. What? He loves her, but he throws her away because the first child she bore for him was only a girl, and now she is unable to have another. What good is a woman who can't bear boy children? Love her or not, she is worthless, a well that has run dry. Another puzzle for me had to do with two girls in trouble at school for "committing a sin." All I could see was that one of them was drawing with a black marker on her ankle, like a tattoo, which the school principal didn't even see. Their "sin" was a mystery to me, as was why that episode was included in the story. It's all very bizarre.
I'm all for trying to understand each other's culture, but I have to say that I've never seen a more disgusting culture than the one portrayed in this movie. There are just no words for the treatment of women. "Keep your voices down, girls. You don't want the men in the other room to hear you." "Girls, why are you here? The men working on the building next door can see you. Get inside!" And on and on. The system seems to set women and girls up as breeding cattle, penned in and at the service of their men. Wadjda's mother's only interest in her future seems to be to "marry her off" to somebody. I have to say that the overall obsession with sex in society is horrible, worse than Western pornography, not because it is too open about sex, but because most of life seems to revolve around sex, and in particular keeping it in chains -- for the female half of the population. Another repulsive feature of Saudi life is how religion of the very worst kind dominates, the mere memorizing of passages from scripture, passages that have no inherent appeal, not a shred of enlightenment, humanity or poetry, only straightforward instructions about obedience and punishment. And on the edges of official religion we get glimpses of superstition, such as "Don't leave your Koran open, or the devil will spit in it." Ycchh!
Be prepared to like the little girl, who is very appealing. Don't expect, though, to see a girl of great courage calling into question important issues in the Saudi way of life. Her rebellion (too strong a word) is pathetically modest. She doesn't really understand what she is doing. You'll enjoy seeing her male friend, too, who is generous and truly likes her, although I did find it a little weird when he asked, "Wadjda, you know I want to marry you when we get older." There was nothing timid or tentative about it. He wasn't making a request, not asking for her consent; it seemed like simply making a claim, and that she would have very little to say about it when the time comes for him to get what he wants. So even though the boy is likable, the seeds of an ugly dominance are there and, as someone else has commented here, in a few years he will be a typical Saudi man with his foot on the neck of all the women in his circle. So enjoy her, enjoy him, enjoy their friendship, but be prepared to loathe pretty much all of what you see of Saudi society.