Study Guide Themes Archives: Music

Wadjda

Wadjda is a 10-year-old girl living in a suburb of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Although she lives in a conservative world, Wadjda is always pushing the boundaries of what she can get away with. After a fight with her friend Abdullah, Wadjda sees a beautiful green bicycle for sale. She wants the bicycle desperately so that she can beat Abdullah in a race. Wadjda’s mother won’t allow it, fearing repercussions from a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl’s virtue. So Wadjda decides to try and raise the money herself. Soon enough, Wadjda’s plans are thwarted when she is caught running various schemes at school. Just as she is losing hope of raising enough money, she hears of a cash prize for a Koran recitation competition at her school. She devotes herself to the memorization and recitation of Koranic verses, determined to continue fighting for her dreams. Wadjda is the first feature length film to be shot completely in Saudi Arabia, as well as the first feature film made by a female Saudi director

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Mary & Max

An animated tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York.

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The Magic Hour

This modern fairy tale magically unfolds in flashbacks as a middle-aged writer, suffering from writer’s block, returns to her childhood in search of the key to the future.

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Monsieur Lazhar

In Montréal, Bachir Lazhar, a refugee from Algeria, is hired to replace a schoolteacher who has suddenly died. Despite the initial cultural differences, he gradually gets to know his pupils, developing a close relationship with his class.

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Mooz-lum

Growing up under a strict father and the even stricter tutelage of his fundamentalist Muslim teachers, Tariq enters college questioning his faith, values, and identity. When the sudden cataclysm of 9/11 inflames antiMuslim fervor on campus, Tariq is forced to make a stand one way or the other.

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