We have seen an umpteen number of films on adventurous journeys, but Hijra from Saudi Arabia, one of the titles in the recently concluded Red Sea International Film Festival, though set in the same mould, is somewhat different. About three women – a grandmother and her two teenage granddaughters – who are on their way to perform Haj at Mecca, they run into a whole lot of obstacles, some hilarious, some not. Saudi director Shahad Ameen uses fantastic landscapes and arresting faces to weave a story of fortitude and rebellion. The girls are headstrong, the older lady equally so, and we see an exciting bout of conflicts.
Interestingly, Ameen does not use cliched situations or mannerisms, and gets us through the movie in remarkably novel ways. If the performances look real, Hijra, in a veiled way, is a critique of the society where it is set. On a bus journey to the holy city, one of the sisters, Jana, just 12, suddenly finds older sister Sara missing. Jana alerts her grandma, and their search for the missing girl turns into a pulse-pounding adventure.
As their search goes on, we find a whole lot of characters appearing on the screen. There is Aunt Laila – whose house Sara appears to have gone to – and Ahmed (Nawaf Al Dhufairi), a good natured taxi driver who also sells water, calling it holy! When the two women reach Laila’s (who runs a beauty parlour) place, they are told that Sara has run away with her boyfriend.
Hijra has all the potential to be a comedy, and the director does indulge us here, but deep down, the movie is a serious work about how women in Saudi Arabia are treated. Admittedly, things have changed a lot in the past few years, with women being allowed to even drive. And during my recent visit to Jeddah, the home of the annual 10-day Festival, I saw women driving cars and in fancy clothes. The new administration is trying to get modern, and maybe even compete with Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.
In the final analysis, Hijra is a powerful reflection of how Saudi women are inching towards a liberated existence after decades of being subjected to male dominance. This was bound to happen, the winds of change had to come, especially with Saudi’s neighbours, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain all having gone modern and liberal.
(The writer is a movie critic and an author. Views expressed are personal)