The Middle Eastern Week, 2. It is time to meet two wonderful women : WADJDA by Haifaa Al Mansour

Tonight, let me introduce you two wonderful women. No I'm not going to talk about me... But about two Saudi Arabian women. Well, one is more a girl actually.

Priority to kids.

The first one is the young actress of the recent movie WADJA.

Wadja is the name of the young heroin of the movie.

Wadja is a girl and she has one desire: riding a bike, riding her own bike... Easy ! Not really because in her country, girls are not allowed to ride. She is smart, she is genuine and she will fight to make her dream comes true.

She wears Converse as defiance and she doesn't fear to deal with men to make sure they will keep the famous bike for her.

The bike, it is the real symbol of the movie, it is the embodiment of freedom and discovering.

Wadja is ready to do everything to have this bike, even to sign off to her school's Koran repetition competition.

This movie is built like a fable, full of symbols and hope.

WADJDA Official Trailer #1 (2013) HD Reem Abdullah Waad Mohammed Haifaa Al-Mansour

WADJDA Official Trailer #1 (2013) HD Reem Abdullah Waad Mohammed Haifaa Al-Mansour

The second amazing woman is Haifaa Al Mansour, the director of the movie.

She was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. She then moved to Cairo and to Sydney to study cinema.
She is the voice of the women in SA and the first woman Saudi director.
She show us different kind of women in her country from the teacher to the housewife including the young teenage in love.

We discover life at school, beautiful singsongs ... and through Wadja's mother the life of women with day to day tasks and the issues in the couple when the husband is looking for a second wife.

This movie is delicate and an open door on dreams and hope.

An hope for the Saudi 7th Art as there are only few movies directed there. Haifaa Al Mansour herself said that it was an adventure to direct her movie in Riyad streets, she had to hide many times.

Let's hope that her action helps Saudi Arabia cinema and that movies theaters open again there as they are close since the 70's.