BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Oh, and another film at the Harris features bicycles prominently: Wadjda. It is also the first feature film by a female made in Saudi Arabia. http://theaters.pittsburgharts.org/wadjda Ends Jan 9. See it if you wish to be greatly charmed by a bicycle-desiring rebellious young girl.

Wadjda looks awesome. Thanks for posting that it's playing. I would have missed it.

Pseudacris - so good to see you on the board, hope all is well with you!

Wadjda was fun, mainly because of the girl's acting and direction. It's a sweet film that gets into some social issues in Saudi Arabia without being judgmental. There was a New Yorker review of it a while ago that compared it with other bicycle-oriented films (like "kid with a bicycle"). That may be of interest. I'll see if I can find it online.

Here's the part of the review of "Wadjda" in The New Yorker that I liked: "Nevertheless, 'Wadjda' deserves its place in the canon of two-wheeled movies: a slim but distinguished line, gliding from De Sica's 'Bicycle Thieves,' Tati's 'Jour de Fête,' and Truffauts 'Les Mistons' through to the Dardenne brothers' 'The Kid with a Bike.' They all depend on an awkward clump of metal that has no use or purpose until it starts to move, at which point, especially for the young, it acquired a liberating grace. Al Mansour is too smart to overdo the symbolic spin, but the thrust of her film, toward the end, could hardly be more urgent. Wadjda winds up at an intersection, watching traffic stream by in both directions. You might read the scene as a feminist renewal of 'The 400 Blows,' and of its celebrated freeze-frame at the ocean's unwelcoming edge."

@TDF - thanks! I have become an infrequent lurker....

"Wadjda" screening at Northland Library in McCandless, 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 14. Two ways to get there by bus/bike: * 12:00 8 Perrysville to West View (exit at Dunkin Donuts), then bike the four miles up Perry Highway. First road on the right after CCAC North is Hillvue. Library is at the top of the hill on the left (just past Rep. Mike Turzai's office). The 12:20 bus will get you to WView with barely time to make it. * Catch the 11:50 12 McKnight, but exit the bus at Northway Mall. It takes the 12 almost 20 minutes to go the two miles up to Cumberland, but biking the following only takes 10, and is a lot more pleasant. Follow the bus out to the edge of the mall lot, but don't follow it. Continue straight across Babcock onto Rodrick, L Sunderland, R Lindisfarne, L Perrymont, R Fox Ridge, L Demmler, R Ridgemont, to end of street, L onto trail, follow trail (about 200 yards) to parking lot of Carson Middle School, L at road that comes up into Carson, down the hill, jiggle L R onto road into library. This map may help.