Can you imagine what it would be like to live in a country where it is illegal for women to ride bicycles?
Today I would like to recommend a very special movie to you called "Waganda".
The Saudi female director, the Saudi girl protagonist, and the special social environment of Saudi Arabia, these three points alone make this movie special enough.
In fact, the story line of the film is not complicated. It tells that under the social and religious background of Saudi Arabia's heavy restrictions, the girl Waganda tries to break through the restrictions of family, school and even society, and wants to buy a bicycle of her own.
From the beginning of the film, it can be seen that Wajda is a girl who is "out of tune" with the real society of Saudi Arabia. She wears jeans, canvas shoes, a denim schoolbag with a loose back, and listens to Western songs called evil songs by her mother. Rock pop, and a hijab that's never been wrapped.
And her "dangling" attitude is the only vivid character in the whole movie, and the only one who lives for herself. Just like the bright blue nail polish on her toes, in a lifeless environment, she is the only one who has become a bright color with vitality.
And when Waganda's bicycle dream was frequently blocked, in the whole movie, except Waganda herself, there were only three people who really helped Waganda's desire to buy a bicycle.
They are Waganda's mother, Abdullah and the owner of the grocery store. The different positions of the three people also reflect the social ecology of Saudi Arabia.
waganda's mother
Within the space of the family, Vajda's mother was no different from any modern woman around us.
She wears ordinary people's clothes, wears delicate makeup, takes care of her hair, works and sings in the kitchen, and loves her family.
But once she stepped out of the homeland, she became an ordinary Saudi woman wearing a black robe and a veil, unable to accept working with a man, or even looking at a man very disturbed.
It's not right or wrong, she's just doing what society tells her to do. In the family, she lives as her husband wants.
In the marriage, her only emotional conflict was focused on her husband's remarriage.
Although polygamy is allowed in Saudi Arabia, it seems to her to be a betrayal, the key point of family destruction, and the last bottom line she sticks to.
But what we can see is that after the last bottom line was ruthlessly pierced, she was still unable to resist and was unable to fight back.
Under the repressive patriarchal society, even in such a close-knit family, even if the husband said I love you, it would not be able to withstand her inability to conceive the next generation of men after she lost her fertility.
Is she living out herself? All I can say is that if she cuts off her husband's long hair at the end of the film and puts on a hairstyle she likes, she can't actually pay a higher price for herself.
But it was also her inability to fight back in the cramped environment that at the end of the film she chose to buy that "can't own" bicycle for her daughter Waganda. Buying a bike is a bit like a mother-daughter declaration of war on a society that is fraught with restrictions.
The mother took the first step and bought a "weapon" for her daughter, so that Waganda could choose for her own choice. This is the powerlessness and despair of her own life status, and it is also a loss to Waganda and the future society. hope.
As she said, she also had no way of knowing if it was the right decision, but she hoped it was.
Abdullah
There is a scene in the first half of the film where Abdullah rips off her hijab while he rides a bike and chasing Waganda.
This scene was very moving. He was waving the black turban that was torn off, giving people the illusion that he was the one who removed the prison for Waganda and allowed her to grow on her own.
As it turned out, the boy Abdullah was indeed the only person in Waganda's life who accepted her sense of rebellion.
Abdullah supported Waganda's bicycle dream with his actions, knowing that girls should not ride bicycles. From giving helmets, borrowing bicycles to offering to send bicycles.
Abdullah is like a partner fighting alongside Waganda.
Abdullah once said to Waganda "You know I will marry you later, right?". The relationship between them can be regarded as a hope for the director to deal with.
It seems that the present world is difficult to change, and we can only hope for the next generation.
Abdullah can see a lot of tolerance and understanding for Waganda. Like most of the audience, I also believe that compared to Waganda's conservative father, maybe Abdullah and Waganda met , will make the adult Abdullah have a more enlightened ideology of his family.
At the same time, don't forget that although Abdullah was the one who took off the Waganda's turban, he was also the one who gave her a new one; he was the one who encouraged her to pursue her dreams and believed that dying for Allah would kill her To someone who has 70 brides in paradise.
None of us can guarantee what choice Abdullah would have made if Waganda, like her mother, had suffered the same blow to her fertility.
Will he be like Waganda's father, or will he stick to love itself.
grocer
A grocer and a driver with a very bad attitude are a very good contrast.
In the case of drivers, in an extremely patriarchal society, even if women pay to hire someone, they are still angry with themselves. It is the normal state of society that women do not need to be respected by men.
Ironically, all it takes to fix the problem is a warning from a ten-year-old boy.
At the same time, the owner of the grocery store had a completely different attitude. He accepted the "promise" with the girl Waganda and kept his promise to leave the bike to the brave girl
. Finally, watching her speeding on the road, the grocery store owner is sincerely happy for this "friendship" exchanged for a plate of MIX TAPE.
Although the director's setting is a bit deliberate in my opinion, it still makes people feel comfortable.
Restricted backgrounds, there are always people who are more or less doing their own efforts for your "rebellion".
The grocer is one of them.
About the director
The director also mentioned in the interview that the scriptures read in the film were also specially screened by her. For example, the sutra recited by the mother and Vajda on the roof is an expression of love between a man and a woman.
The director said that she chose this paragraph because she wanted to remind everyone that there are many neglected verses about love in the Quran, because now many people have deviated from the original meaning of the Quran.
Although I know very little about Islam, the director mentioned that women are not required to cover their faces in the Koran. This is an evolved social norm, which is really unexpected.
Shooting in conservative areas is particularly difficult, and many shots in public areas are directed by the director hiding in the van.
The director said that she didn't want to pass this movie to promote something or social conflict, as long as a Saudi man watched the movie and bought his daughter a bicycle, it was meaningful enough to her .
This sounds right, but it still carries a sense of women's own rights being granted by men. As stipulated in Saudi Arabia in 2013, bicycles can be used as a recreational tool for women, not a means of transportation, and can only be used by male relatives on certain occasions.
And what we want to see more is that women should learn how to fight for their due rights in bondage.
Although Mansour's voice seems to us more like a mild protest, placed in the Saudi background, the power of the voice is far beyond our imagination.
In addition to the previously mentioned partial lifting of the ban on bicycles for women, the Saudi royal family issued a decree last year to open up the driving rights of Saudi women, and the ban on women's bicycles was officially lifted on June 24, 2018.
In any case, in an era when everyone is sweeping the snow before the door, silence seems to be the best way to protect oneself and be smart, and director Mansour has the courage to complete such a rebellious film in such a difficult environment. The movie is admirable enough.
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