Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Here is the first full-length feature shot entirely inside Saudi Arabia. Even more remarkably, it is made by a woman, very much the second-class citizen in the Saudi social hierarchy. Haifaa al-Mansour's film offers an unassuming yet beady view of prescribed destiny in the lives of girls and women.
Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) is a sparky 10-year-old with a mischievous sense of humour and a taste for freedom. Both get her into trouble at her religious school, where the soppy-stern headmistress instructs her pupils in the verses of the Koran and the virtues of being neither seen nor heard.
Wadjda's mother (Reem Abdullah) refuses to buy her a bicycle – not a ladylike conveyance – and frets that her husband may take a second wife. The cleverness of the fable is to turn the ascendancy of the male inside out: this is a film dominated by women.
In the title role Mohammed makes a sweet scamp, wry and watchful, always chancing her arm even as she senses trouble ahead – which is, in a nutshell, what most Saudi women can expect of life.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments