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[The film's] very existence is already a historic triumph... Wadjda is a superb film. The performances of the children are wonderful and the weight of the situation weighs heavily on their futures.

Narratively, Wadjda is of a type rather than trailblazingly original: the earnest but gently comic tone as well as the content of Samira Makhmalbaf’s films is particularly recalled... Still, Haifaa al Mansour’s debut merits recognition for its fresh-feeling take on the trope whereby the travails of a child protagonist mirror those of a wider society.

The layers [Abdullah] reveals of her character's experience, the amount of stuff she allows us to see (insecurity, judgment, despair, rage, helplessness, gentleness, vanity, sexual anxiety and desire) … it's fearless, especially considering that the "Saudi woman" is practically non-existent in terms of representation out there in the world of art. Mostly we just see fully-cloaked-and-covered figures. [Like Wadjda's director,] Reem Abdullah is a pioneer, too.

The narrative of Wadjda is essentially a series of obstacles and clever solutions, the path of an intelligent and resourceful girl who, in the end, finds that she has to rely on the strength of other women, and the possible paths of new traditions, rather than brash iconoclasm. In a way, this mirrors al-Monsour's filmmaking, which borrows liberally from the picaresque realism of Iranian cinema but is not afraid to soften its hard edges in favor of a hopeful humanism.

The first female-directed Saudi Arabian film would be culturally significant even if it weren't very good; and though writer-director Haifaa Al-Mansour doesn't break new ground aesthetically (the film's style is one of unforced, albeit unremarkable, naturalism), she relates the experience of a Saudi Arabian girl's coming of age clearly and unsentimentally, which alone makes this a must-see.

What keeps Wadjda from devolving into a sort of heavy-handed cultural show-and-tell is its title character. Played by Waad Mohammed—a newcomer, like most of the cast—she is stubborn, selfish, and a little vindictive. She feels like a real person and, as a result, imbues the film's most on-the-nose moments—like its climactic Koran reciting competition—with a sense of life and unpredictability.

What makes the movie so delightful is that Wadjda isn't trying to make trouble; she's just being herself. A shot of the system of wire hangers attached to her radio so she can pick up Western music stations sums up her can-do attitude... [The director] shows a delicate touch with this place where small gestures carry great meaning. Al-Mansour has also made a movie that leaves you yearning for another chapter in the adventures of this little girl.

[A] sharply observed, deceptively gentle film... [Wadjda] presents the facts of its heroine’s life — and also, more obliquely, the lives of her mother, classmates and teachers — with calm authority and devastating effectiveness... [finding] room to manoeuvre between harsh realism and a more hopeful kind of storytelling.

What sets Wadjda apart is Al-Mansour's confidently light touch (this is one of the most outwardly cheery jeremiads ever made), which allows the uneasy existence between the young protagonist and the stringent society in which she lives to gradually gain in force.

It's likely and commendable that young girls (or boys) in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere will findWadjda inspiring. But few others should expect much in the way of artful innovation, as Wadjda, with its climactic, scholastic contest, is more Bee Season than Bicycle Thieves. It doesn't play like reality, but like boilerplate filmic fantasy, and its novel setting and inception struggles seem positioned as a beard—or veil, if you will—to mask its mediocrity.

The film's bittersweet denouement is genuinely tender. The closing image of Wadjda at a crossroads gives a sense of freedom and hope.

It’s always a great experience to watch a film whose mere existence is a cause for celebration. And the experience becomes even more pleasurable when you quickly realise it needs no special pleading, and can be judged a resounding success entirely on its own merits.