Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) has announced it has acquired all North American rights to Wadjda, the first feature film to be made entirely in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This film has also been written and directed by the first ever Saudi female director, Haifaa Al-Mansour. The deal has been obtained from the films producer, […]
Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) has announced it has acquired all North American rights to Wadjda, the first feature film to be made entirely in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This film has also been written and directed by the first ever Saudi female director, Haifaa Al-Mansour.
The deal has been obtained from the films producer, Razor Films in Berlin. Rena Ronson of UTA Independent Film Group negotiated this deal with SPC, and the Match Factory will handle foreign sales.
Wadjda recently had its world premiere at the 2012 Venice Film Festival. Shortly after, SPC discovered the film at its North American debut in Canada at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
The film focuses on a 10-year-old Saudi girl who is determined to buy a bicycle, despite Saudi traditions that make such a purchase difficult. It portrays her fight for what she believes in.
In a recent statement, Al-Mansour said: I come from a small town in Saudi Arabia, a country where showing movies in public is illegal. To write and direct the first film ever to be shot inside Saudi Arabia was beyond my wildest dreams. To premiere my film at the Venice Film Festival was even more incredible, and now to have Sony Classics bring the film to North America, the place from where I first saw the power and emotional possibilities of film, is beyond anything I ever could have imagined.
SPC plan for a theatrical release of Wadjda in 2013.
