REALISM AS RESISTANCE

This paper explores the potential of realist cinema to portray resistance to oppression and restrictions on people’s lives. Wadjda (2013) 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, Haifaa Al M...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Angelaki : journal of theoretical humanities 2020-10, Vol.25 (5), p.156-170
Main Author: Marguerite La Caze
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Al-Mansour, Haifaa
Authenticity
Girls
Motion pictures
Oppression
Political persecution
Realism
Resistance
Women
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Summary:This paper explores the potential of realist cinema to portray resistance to oppression and restrictions on people’s lives. Wadjda (2013) 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, Haifaa 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 focusing 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.
ISSN:0969-725X
1469-2899
DOI:10.1080/0969725X.2020.1807148