Wadjda, the first film ever to be made by a female Saudi film-maker, is sweet with hope and dark with anger.  The eponymous Wadjda is a young girl growing up into the limitations imposed on women by Saudi society.  She has an ambition to buy a bike so that she can prove she’s faster than her friend Abdullah, and in the course of her quest the audience is shown a background of institutionalised misogyny and control of both women and men through shame, religious teaching and superstition.  The film is uncompromising in its message but delicate in its delivery and charming with it.

Max Richter’s skilful soundtrack expertly steers the mood of each scene, with minimal melody cycles in a sonic haze which causes the desert heat to radiate from the screen.  Excellently costumed and thoughtfully shot, the film feels very much like one woman’s vision in its unity.

The casting, I felt, was excellent.  I was particularly impressed by Waad Mohammed who plays Wadjda.  She creates a beautifully three-dimensional character whose grin stayed with me for a long time after I left the cinema.  I was also captivated by Reem Abdullah’s portrayal of Wadjda’s mother, a woman who is betrayed not only by her husband but also by a society which permits bigamy.  Abdullah conjures perfectly the powerless striving of an ill-treated partner trying, alone, to fix a relationship.

I really enjoyed this sweet and powerful story.  I was fascinated to witness the societal cages in which Saudi women live, and even more intrigued to see women themselves building and reinforcing them.  Here’s hoping that Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Wadjda is a hopeful forecast for the future of gender equality in Saudi Arabia.