Wadjda (2012 Film):
7.6/10-IMDb
99%-Rotten Tomatoes
81%-Metacritic

The first Saudi Arabian film (and by a female filmmaker nonetheless), Wadjda is a powerful, charming and heartfelt film. It narrates the story of a 10 years old girl, Wadjda (played by Waad Mohammed), who enters a Koran’s competition in order to raise funds to buy a bike so that she can race against her friend Abdullah (played by Abdullrahman Al Gohani). Girls are not allowed to ride bikes in the Kingdom for fear that they might accidentally lose their virginity and director-screenwriter Haifaa Al-Mansour elegantly uses this simple story of a strong-willed young girl to convey the complex situation of women in a patriarchal and controlling society like the Saudi one.