Wadjda struck me very much the way A Separation struck me, except I found Wadjda a lot more enjoyable. The films coming out of Muslim countries these days are a bit hard to relate to as a westerner, because they focus on the cutting edge issues of their society, issues that seem very foreign or hopelessly dated to us. So Wadjda refuses to wear her headscarf, and has an impossible dream of riding a bicycle in public (two things girls simply do not do.) She hopes with her mother that her father does not take a second wife. She wishes she could be included on her father’s family tree which hangs in her house, which is of course only men. And she opportunistically studies the Quran for the sole purpose of winning a recitation prize, with which she can buy her bicycle. These issues must be really radical for the audience they’re created for, but for us, not so much.

Nevertheless, there are themes in this movie which I found to translates well to western society. Wadjda herself represents the youthful desire to challenge social norms. She sees no reason to carry on stupid, senseless societal conventions that serve no evident purpose, and through her irreverence she inspires various others (her mother, the boy across the street) to grow and change in beautiful ways. And at the same time, the film makes the point that modern Muslim society is just as internally fucked up and conflicted as our own. All over the place there are signs that people want things to be different – rules are ignored or broken, and people are generally aware of, and seduced by, the outside world. These cracks in society give people room to dream, or at least ponder the future a bit more openly.

Wadjda is a very cute film, an interesting portrait of youthful rebelliousness and of social issues in modern Muslim society. It’s well worth a watch.