Moolaadé

In a West African village, four small girls flee a circumcision ceremony and take shelter with a woman named Colle. She strings a cord across her doorway signifying protective magic; by tradition nobody may cross it. The village splits in two and everything turns on one woman's decision. Ousmane Sembene wrote and directed; it was his last film. He addresses the subject openly: female genital cutting is presented not as tradition but as a matter of health and power, and its consequences are shown directly. The second thread is radio: the women's radios are collected and burned, because contact with outside is considered dangerous. The film was widely shown in Africa and caused argument, which Sembene intended. It won the top prize in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2004. The colour and staging are plain; the camera is mostly fixed and keeps the community in frame together. Who it is for: viewers who like African cinema and films carrying a social argument. Who it is not for: anyone unable to carry the weight of the subject; the film softens nothing.