Wadjda

Wadjda is a ten-year-old girl living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, who sets her heart on a green bicycle she sees for sale. Her mother refuses to buy it, partly because of the social disapproval that comes with girls riding bicycles, and the family has other worries as well. Determined to get the bike anyway, Wadjda looks for ways to earn the money herself, and when her schemes at school go wrong, she enters a Quran recitation competition with a cash prize, hoping to win enough to pay for it.

The film was directed by Haifaa al-Mansour, who also wrote the screenplay. It was her first feature, followed later by Mary Shelley, Nappily Ever After, The Perfect Candidate and Unidentified. Waad Mohammed plays Wadjda, with Reem Abdullah as her mother, Abdullrahman Algohani as her friend Abdullah, Ahd as Ms. Hussa and Sultan Al Assaf as her father. The production involved companies from Germany and elsewhere, and it earned about 6 million dollars worldwide.

Audiences on TMDB rate it 7.2 out of 10 from 531 votes, while critics give it 8 out of 10 from 122 reviews, a notably higher score than the audience figure. The story is set in a conservative society where a child's wish for a bicycle becomes something larger than a simple purchase.