Wadjda

Seen at The Station Cinema in Richmond, North Yorkshire

Bea says: I was expecting a film outraged - and that would make me feel outraged - about the limitations of being female in a Middle Eastern country.  Instead, this is a lovely, whimsical film largely about childhood. The young heroine, Wadjda, is a slightly tomboyish girl in the earlier years of a strict girls' high school with an intimidating headmistress who is always on the prowl looking for girls who are doing things they shouldn't.

So far, so familiar - I read countless novels with this theme when I was Wadjda's age.  Sure, the girls in the novels didn't wear a hijab niqab or burkha, but they did have to wear a uniform correctly, and were frequently hauled to the headmistress's office for not wearing a slip or some such transgression.

Wadjda has a boy who is her friend in the neighbourhood.  He goes to a different school, but they play together sometimes - and he wants to marry her.  Again, so far, so familiar - I had friends like this at Wadjda's age too, and many proposals!

Wadjda's friend rides a bike.  Wadjda wants to too, so a large part of the film is focussed on the bike that she regularly visits at the local toy shop to gaze longingly at, and her efforts to earn enough pocket money to buy it.  When I was 11, I gazed longingly at a pair of knee high brown boots in a local shoe shop as often as I could (I was rather less of a tomboy than Wadjda!), and saved my pocket money diligently - until I received them for my birthday!  Similarly, Wadjda is gifted the bike.

The adult women in her life shake their heads and scold that it is not seemly for girls to ride bikes, but it does not appear to be expressly forbidden, as Wadjda learns to ride and eventually rides her own bike with her friend (a metaphor for freedom, and equality, in the film, methinks?)

We do see some of the difficult circumstances that women experience in the film, albeit filtered through Wadjda to some extent - her mother's difficult journey to her teaching post, as she is she not permitted to drive herself there; having to provide food for the men visiting the house by leaving it outside the living room door rather than be seen by them, and her mother's painful experience of infertility following Wadjda's birth and hence being set aside while her husband and his family search for another wife to provide him with a son.
Indeed, it is with money set aside for a new dress to tempt her husband that Wadjda's mother buys the bike - again rather symbolic.

So perhaps the key theme of this gently thought-provoking film is about change, as a new generation of bike riding tomboys, supported by their mothers, grows up - perhaps there is a different life waiting for them?

***.5


Cecil says: What can I say? Again, Bea has said it all really.

I wouldn't even see Wadjda as particularly tomboyish personally. She's just a kid who wants to have fun in life and has the strength of purpose to make self-sacrifices (spending hours learning the Koran) in order to win the prize that will buy her that bike she wants.

What's fantastic about this film is knowing that it was made by a woman film director Haifaa Al-Mansour, who had at times to direct from inside some caravan or other on the set because male actors weren't allowed to see her. And yet, in spite of this, she has made a light-hearted, carefree film that is just a joy to watch.

It is thought-provoking, for sure, but it doesn't descend into the kind of angry rant that we in the west might think Saudi women SHOULD be expressing at the outrageous restrictions on their lives. And there was no shortage of tut-tutting and disapproval from some in the audience where we watched it (in Yorkshire)...

I noticed that this weekend Saudi women did hold a protest over the rules that stop them from driving. Good for them! And may they win their battle quickly.

But it's not right for us in the developed west to tell them how to achieve change in their societies, or even what change to aim for.

I think Wadjda did a great job going for her own goals. And Al-Mansour too in making this film.

We don't HAVE to be angry to achieve change...

***.5

Starbuck

Seen at The Station Cinema in Richmond, North Yorkshire.

Bea says: This was quite a lovely film, which gave me that warm glow that comes with knowing all is right with the world.

The film's main character is a 40-something bloke who has never really achieved anything much in life, although he is employed in his family business, has a girlfriend who is expecting, has his own place and friends. And that's kind of what I liked about this film - it was about celebrating the small things, the everyday and realising that what we have, if we have anything at all, is rich.  It's also about doing good things for other people.

This undercurrent carried the film through its main plot - that this man, who was a prolific sperm donor in his youth (and we do find out why later in the film), has fathered 533 children, who, now in their 20s, want to find out who he is.

So a big part of the film is about family and fatherhood, but it kind of transcended that for me (perhaps because I didn't relate so much to the fatherhood thing) and felt about inclusion, about the fact that families aren't necessarily just mum, dad and kids - that they are whoever we want them to be.

So this was a film about belonging, about doing good things, and about how just having an everyday existence is something to feel good about.

A refreshing change from the formulaic rom coms, high violence action thrillers and dull kids' films that dominate the cinemas these days.  Definitely one for a rainy Sunday.

***.5


Cecil says: Actually, Bea's right. And I have nothing really more to add!

It's not a side-splitting, rib-achingly funny film, but the kind of movie where the story keeps your attention and you get a few good chuckles along the way.

That Quebecois French is amazing, though. Must be like listening to a Geordie if you're not a native-English speaker (or rather, if you are native English speaker).

***

Sunshine on Leith

Seen at the wonderful Palace Cinema in Malton, North Yorkshire

Cecil says: The film opens with a bunch of soldiers in an armoured vehicle somewhere in the Middle East. One of them begins to sing and is joined by the rest of them before you know it. Same things troops have done, and sailors before them, for centuries...

It was only when the two main characters are back home in Edinburgh, and begin singing again – this time with rather well-choreographed steps down the Leith streets – that it dawned on me: Sunshine on Leith is a musical.

Now, this is the second musical I’ve seen recently without knowing it in advance (Rock of Ages caught me out too), and I’m not a big fan of the genre. But Sunshine on Leith was a lot of fun, the singing was really rather good (well, it is all based on The Proclaimers’ music, so what do you expect?), and by the final scene, with the mass flash-mob in central Edinburgh, I felt like getting up and shaking my stuff with the rest of them.

I don’t know anything about film-making, so I’ve no idea how you go about transposing a stage play to the big screen, but it didn’t feel as if the producers of this movie did much transposing. Apart from the (very frequent) camera panning over Edinburgh skylines (so frequent in fact that you feel as if the Edinburgh Tourist Board had a hand in the final cut), virtually every scene felt as if it had been taken straight from the stage.

By half way through, I was whispering to Bea every few minutes, ‘I can feel a song coming up’, and sure enough one of the main characters would burst into song, usually backed by the amassed crowd of onlookers in the pub, on the steps, in the museum, wherever you liked, basically.

Plot-wise, this was a nice story about two young soldiers getting out of the army after a touch tour of duty in Afghanistan (I think), and readapting to home life; it’s about their relationships, their parents, about dreams and wavering views of where life is taking us.

If that sounds a bit deep, I’ve pitched it wrong. This is a fun film, which I’m sure most of us can relate to on one level or other. There were a few weak moments in the dialogue and the storyline, but the overall feel was positive, so who cares?

I don’t suppose you’ll see such glowing reviews from the Glasgow side of Scotland. But I’ll let Bea elaborate on that...

***.5

Bea says: 

The musical aspect of Sunshine on Leith caught me by surprise too - although I was familiar with The Proclaimer's album of the same name, and had read some blurb on the film, so knew it was about two soldiers returning from Afghanistan, and that it was set to The Proclaimers music.  "Set to" made me think that The Proclaimers would be somewhere in the background, so I wasn't expecting people to sing them, but did enjoy it.

There were some really good performers and performances here - Jane Horrocks as Jean and Peter Mullen as Rab particularly, and the stage play feel means the dialogue feels stronger than it otherwise might.  There are some slight plot lapses in my view - Rab's infidelity is rather quickly got over by Jean, considering how badly she initially reacted, at a point in the film where suddenly all the difficulties experienced by everyone were being rather quickly got over - true 1950s musical style I guess!  The Proclaimers music and lyrics is well used to hang the story together - I've seen a few of these kinds of musicals and often this is not the case!

Edinburgh stars as itself and very nearly steals the show; the rather dismissive references to Glasgow are notable by those (like me) who have a soft spot for Scotland's other big city.. 

Most touching moment?  The lyrics of Letter from America demonstrating how similar life is in some ways to a hundred or more years ago when people left Scotland for work, and for a new and hopefully better life.

A lovely feel-good film for a dull afternoon; a bit twee in its wrapping up of all the plotlines but with a little bit of poignancy to ensure it isn't forgettable.

***.5