Synopsis

“Groundbreaking…powerful parable of feminism at the sharp end” 
Time Out

Maryam is an ambitious young doctor working in a small town clinic in Saudi Arabia. Despite her qualifications, she has to earn the respect of male colleagues and acceptance from her patients every day.  After Maryam is prevented from traveling to Dubai in search of a better job, a bureaucratic mix up leads her to stumble on the application for her local city elections and she decides to run. 

With her musician father away on tour playing the first public concerts allowed in the Kingdom in decades, Maryam enlists her two younger sisters to begin fundraising and planning campaign events. While they face the restriction of women’s traditional roles in the Kingdom at every turn, Maryam’s audacious candidacy starts to build momentum and challenges her conservative community. 

A tight race emerges between Maryam and her male opponent, as Maryam and her family mobilize their determination and creativity to move their traditional society forward.

See the film on Great Modern Things which is Modern Films own Video on Demand platform – if you watch the film with them you also have an opportunity to donate to your local independent cinema. Some of our RTF partner venues including Barbican, Ciné Lumière and Rio Cinema are listed so we urge you to support them during this difficult time – you can find out more here.   

Or catch it on premium VoD on BFI Player, Curzon Home Cinema 

You can catch RECLAIM THE FRAME in conversation with the director Haifaa Al Mansour on Facebook Live via the Birds’ Eye View Facebook Page on Wednesday 15 April from 6.00pm GMT, 1pm EST, 10am PST.

 

Cast & Crew

The film is written and directed by Haifaa al-Mansour the Saudi Arabian film director who one of the country’s best-known and most controversial directors, and the first female Saudi filmmaker.

Her feature debut, Wadjda, which she wrote as well as directed, made its world premiere at the 2012 Venice Film Festival; it is the first full-length feature to be shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and was nominated for an Oscar in 2012.  This marks her return to filmmaking in her home country after 2 English language feature films.

Catch Wadjda on VoD here https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/wadjda