Can you imagine what it would be like to survive in a country where it is illegal for women to ride bicycles?
Today I would like to recommend a very special movie called "Vajada".
Saudi female directors, Saudi heroines, coupled with Saudi Arabia's special social environment, these three points alone make this film seem special enough.
In fact, the story line of the film is not complicated, telling that in the context of Saudi Arabia's restrictive society and religion, the girl Vajada 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 Vajada is a girl who is "out of place" with Saudi real society, wearing jeans, canvas shoes, a loose denim school bag, listening to Western rock pop songs called evil songs (Devil's Song) by her mother, and wearing a turban that is never wrapped.
And her posture of "hanging ErLang Dang" is the only vivid character in the whole movie, and the only person who lives for herself. Like the bright blue nail polish on her toes, in the lifeless environment, only she became a bright color with vitality.
At a time when Vajjada's bicycle dreams are frequently blocked, in the whole movie, in addition to Vajada herself, only three people really help Vajada's desire to buy bicycles.
They are Vajada's mother, Abdullah and the owner of the grocery store. The different positions of the three also reflect the social ecology of Saudi Arabia.
Vajada's mother
In the space of the family, Vajada's mother is no different from any modern woman around us.
She dresses like a normal person, puts on delicate makeup, takes care of her hairstyle, is busy and singing in the kitchen, and loves her family.
But once she stepped out of the house, she became an ordinary Saudi woman wearing a black robe and a veil, unable to accept working with men, and even looking at men very uneasy.
It's not about right or wrong, she's just doing what society tells her she should do. In the family, she lives the way her husband wants.
In marriage, her only emotional conflict was only focused on the issue of her husband's remarriage.
Although polygamy is allowed in Saudi Arabia, this seems to her to be a betrayal, a key point in the destruction of the family, and the final bottom line she insists on.
But what we see is that after this final bottom line was ruthlessly punctured, she still could not resist and could not fight back.
Under the rule of a repressive patriarchal society, even in such a tight pattern as the family, even if the husband says the words I love you, it cannot withstand the inability of her to bear the next generation of men after losing her fertility.
Is she living herself? All I can say is that if she cuts off her husband's favorite long hair at the end of the film and changes it to her favorite hairstyle, it is also a kind of self, in fact, she can't pay a bigger price for herself.
But it is also her inability to fight back in a cramped environment, and at the end of the film, she will choose to buy the "can't own" bicycle for her daughter Vajada.
Buying a bicycle is somewhat like a mother-daughter declaration of war on a restrictive society.
The mother took the first step, buying a "weapon" for her daughter, so that Vajada could choose for her own choices, which was powerless and desperate for the current situation of her life, and also a hope for Vajada and the future society.
As she said, she had no way of knowing if the decision was the right one, but she hoped it was right.
Abdullah
In the first half of the film, abdullah rips off her turban during a ride and Wajada chasing.
The scene is very moving to watch, he wields a black turban that has been torn off, making people wonder if he is the one who dismantled Vajada's confinement and let her grow herself.
As it turns out, the boy Abdullah was indeed the only person in Vajada's life who accepted her rebellious consciousness.
Abdullah, knowing that girls should not ride, also supported Wajada's dream of cycling with practical actions. From giving away a helmet, borrowing a bike to offering to send a bike.
Abdullah seems to be a partner alongside Vajada.
Abdullah once said to Vajjada, "You know I'm going to marry you later, right?" ”。 The relationship between them can be regarded as a hope for the director in handling.
It seems that the present world is difficult to change, and we can only hope for the next generation.
In Abdullah, I can see a lot of tolerance and understanding for Vajada, and like most viewers, I also believe that perhaps abdullah and Vajada's encounter will make Abdullah more enlightened about his family than Vajjada's conservative father.
At the same time, don't forget that Abdullah, although the one who took off Vajada's headscarf, was also the one who gave her a new headscarf; he was the one who encouraged her to pursue her dreams, and he was the one who believed that dying for Allah would go to the paradise of 70 brides.
None of us can guarantee what choice Abdullah would make if vajada had suffered a fertility blow like her mother.
Will he be like Vajjada's father, or will he cling to love itself?
Grocery store owner
The grocery store owner and the driver with a very bad attitude are a very good contrast.
In the case of drivers, in an extremely patriarchal society, even if women spend money to hire people, they are still angry with themselves, and it is the norm for women not to be respected by men.
And even more ironically, solving the problem only requires a warning from a ten-year-old boy.
The grocery store owner, meanwhile, has a very different attitude, accepting the "pact" with the girl Vajada and keeping his promise to leave the bike to the brave girl
。 Finally watching her gallop down the road, the grocery store owner was genuinely happy about the "friendship" he had earned with a plate of mix tape.
Although the director's setting is a bit deliberate in my opinion, it still makes people feel uncomfortable.
With a restrictive background, there are always people who are more or less doing their own efforts for your "rebellion".
The grocery store owner is one of them.
About the director
The director also mentioned in the interview that the verses recited in the film were also specially screened by her. For example, the passage that the mother and Vajada recite on the roof is about the expression of the heart between a man and a woman who fall in love.
The director said that she chose this paragraph to remind everyone that there are many neglected verses about love in the Qur'an, because many people have now deviated from the original meaning of the Qur'an.
Although there is little understanding of Islam, the director mentioned that the Qur'an does not actually require women to be masked, which is an evolved social norm, which is really unexpected.
Filming in conservative areas was particularly difficult, with many public area shots being done by the director hiding in a van.
The director has said that she doesn't want to go through this movie to promote anything or social conflict, as long as a Saudi man watches the movie and buys his daughter a bicycle, it is meaningful enough for her.
This sounds true, but there is still a sense that women's own rights depend on men. As the Saudi Arabia introduced in 2013, bicycles can be used as a means of entertainment for women, not as a means of transportation, and can only be used on specific occasions accompanied by male relatives.
What we would prefer to see is that women should learn how to fight for their rights in bondage.
While Al-Mansour's voice seems more like a gentle protest to us, the power of the voice in the Saudi context is far beyond our imagination.
In addition to the previously mentioned partial lifting of the ban on bicycles to women, last year the Saudi royal family issued a decree to open up the driving rights of Saudi women, and the ban on women 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 clever, and director Mansour has the courage to complete such a rebellious film in such a difficult environment, which is admirable.