Wadjda tells a personal story

London: Haifa Al Mansour, the director of Saudi Arabia’s first feature film ‘Wadjda’, admits the main protagonist, a little girl who dreams of owning a bicycle, was inspired, in part, by her own early years.

“I wanted to make a film that was close to my world,” she said. “I was fortunate enough to be raised by liberal parents who gave me and my siblings plenty of space to be creative. Many of my school friends were not so lucky. They had so much potential but no opportunity. I suppose I wanted to make a film that would inspire them,” she said.

Wadjda is both a heartfelt coming-of-age story and a damning critique of Saudi culture, with a plot that pivots between a repressive school and a troubled home.

Wadjda’s father claims to love his wife, but is nonetheless off scouting a second wife who might bear him a son. Inside the school grounds, the girls are summarily banned from laughing in the yard. “Do you not remember,” the teacher scolds them. “A woman’s voice is her nakedness.”

It remains to be seen whether making the film will leave Haifa similarly exposed. She admits that she is viewed back home as a “polarising figure”, but insists that the country is on the brink of change. “Yes, Saudi Arabia is a difficult place for women. But it’s all too easy to say that and accept that women should simply stay at home. We need to move beyond that way of thinking,” she says.

“Women have to stick together and believe in themselves and push towards what makes them happy. We just need to push a little bit harder against tradition. We need to do things and make things and tell the stories that we want to tell. And I think the world is ready to listen.”