THE NORWEGIAN PEACE FILM AWARD JURY TIFF 2013
Rikke Schubart - Associate Professor, Univ. of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
Zoia V. Ravna - Film Producer, Tromsø, Norway
Christian Beyer - Student MPCT, Tromsø, Norway
WADJDA
Germany/Saudia Arabia | 2012 | 97 min
Director: Haifaa Al Mansour
Screenplay: Haifaa Al Mansour
Photography: Lutz Reitemeier
Actors: Waad Mohammed, Reem Abdullah, Abdullrahman Al Gohani
Producer: Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul
WADJDA is a ground breaking film: the first fiction feature ever shot in Saudi Arabia, with a female director and a young girl in the leading role. Ten-year-old Wadjda lives in the suburbs of Riyadh with her protective mother and hardly present father. All she wants is a new bike to be able to race against the boy next door, Abdullah. But in Saudi Arabia, bikes are seen as dangerous to a girl’s virtue, so the dream is hard to realize. Then one day, Wadjda's school offers a cash prize to the winner of a Qu'ran recitation competition. Wadjda decides to join, to win the prize and fulfill her dream.
During the making of WADJDA, director Haifaa Al Mansour sometimes had to hide in a production van, directing her male crew members via walkie-talkie for fear of sparking protests. She has succeeded in making a captivating coming-of-age-story with impressive acting performances.
Director info
Haifaa Al Mansour (b. 1973) has studied literature at the American University in Cairo, and film at the University of Sydney. She has directed several shorts and one documentary before WADJDA, which is her first fiction feature film.