Ghosts of Times Past

A busy couple of days - giving the shower room a 3rd coat of paint, making medlar jelly syrup (it hasn't set that well), eating pizza with my friend Margaret and having a big catch up; going to see Wadjda, the last arthouse till after Christmas; decorating the Christmas tree, a bit of walking and blipping and spending too much time trying to find out about this little house! I haven't managed to find out much except I think it was connected to, or may even have predated, the Big House, now home of a very famous person! Look carefully and you can see the wooden window frame and remains of wooden panelling. I liked the curtain of ivy.

Wadjda was a brave and interesting film - the first feature length film to come out of Saudi Arabia. It told the story of a charismatic 11 year old girl who wanted more than anything to have a bike. Girls are not allowed to ride bikes in Saudi for fear of immodesty/losing viriginity/becoming unmarriageable/becoming barren. It was an eye opener and a glimpse into a male dominated, fiercely religious society - such a different world and so hard to comprehend. Little girls swathed head to toe in black not allowed to touch or giggle in school; grown women swathed head to toe in black, not allowed to do very much at all without permission of a male relative. And the men can do what they please. The director was a woman, Haifaa al-Mansour, and it took her five years to make the film, eventually getting foreign funding from Germany and Sundance. Filming presented huge problems as she was not allowed to mingle with her male crew so had to direct from the back of a van via walkie talkies. Worth seeing if you get the chance for such a bewildering glimpse at otherness.
An artyfarty backblip for yesterday.