Hijra: dir Shahad Ameen (2025)

This adventure-ish drama, written as well as directed by Shahad Ameen, follows Saudi grandmother Sitti travelling from Taif to Mecca to perform Hajj with her two granddaughters, 12-year-old Janna and 18-year-old Sarah. But before they reach their destination, Sarah disappears, forcing Janna and Sitti into a tense search that stretches across Saudi Arabia, crossing old pilgrimage routes and confronting strangers, unforgiving landscapes, long-buried family secrets, and Sitti’s rich and complicated past …

Their harsh journey begins to mirror the spiritual trials of Hajj itself. While Hijra is undoubtedly entertaining, it goes further – exploring culture, the ties that binds families together, and the deep intergenerational gulfs between the women. We come to see those rifts as nuanced rather than a judgement on the old ways; it’s been described as a critique of the notion that older generations of women were not free, or that elders in general are backward.

This thoughtful, engaging film screens in the CinemaNA contemporary Arab cinema series presented by the NYUAD Film and New Media Program.