This paper explores the potential of realist cinema to portray resistance to oppression and restrictions on people’s lives. Wadjda presents a special case in world cinema in being made in Saudi Arabia, which until recently had no film industry or distribution system. The director, Hafaa Al Mansour, has been praised for making the film there at all. Yet this ignores the film’s power in taking a slice of time in the life of a young Riyadh girl, Wadjda, and (...) focussing on her desire to own a bicycle. The film’s realism depicts restrictions on women’s lives in Saudi Arabia and at the same time affirms hope in gradual change through the natality, in Hannah Arendt’s sense, of a child who does not see these constraints as insurmountable obstacles. I argue that realist films can demonstrate the importance of gradual political progress and can anticipate those advances. (shrink)

This paper explores the potential of realist cinema to portray resistance to oppression and restrictions on people’s lives. Wadjda presents a special case in world cinema in being made in Sa...

Introduction: acts, film, religion: context and perspectives -- Constituting a figure of an activist citizen -- I act therefore I am -- I create therefore I am: towards the cinema of act -- Constructing activism through film: creation of new scene -- Creation of space unbroken links between the citizens: Ana Arabia -- Acts of citizenship and the foreign "other": circles -- Enacting (European) citizenship through film: Inferno -- Creating a rupture: Wadjda -- Conclusion: creative acts, transformation and activist (...) citizens. (shrink)