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Film review by Colin Fraser

MOOLAADÉ

moolaade
A riot erupts in an African village when a woman defends four young girls from ritual circumcision. score

5
moviereview rates films from
1 (unwatchable) to 5 (unmissable)
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Cast
Fatoumata Coulibaly,
Dominique Zeida,
Salimata Traoré


Director
Ousmane Sembene

Screenwriter
Ousmane Sembene

Country
Senegal (subtitles)

Rating / Running Time
MA / 120 minutes

Australian Release
July 2005

Official Site




(c) moviereview 2005
ABN 72 775 390 361

At a prior session, Moolaadé closed with rapturous applause. Such outbursts generally happen at self-indulgent cast screenings, seldom by middle-aged white audiences for African films about female circumcision. You could assume then, quite rightly, that 81 year-old writer-director Ousmane Sembene’s Moolaadé is a special kind of movie. In a Senegalese village, Colle (Fatoumata Coulibaly) invokes the power of moolaadé, or sanctuary, when four young girls seek her protection. These pre-teens are ready for the chop, a brutal village ritual with side-effects that more often than not, lead to death. Colle’s stand so enrages the community that menfolk bristle, argue then burn their wives’ radios Nazi-style to stop them getting any more ‘anti-religious’ ideas. Moolaadé is Sembene’s 16th film that puts you through an emotional ringer. It starts like a colourful sitcom, a small ruckus that will be easily solved. As the standoff grows more serious, the film grows darker, effortlessly melding contemporary urgency with the timelessness of ancient culture. The outside world is drawn in through the Chief’s European educated son and a travelling salesman who berates him for his complicity in what, elsewhere, amounts to paedophilia. It’s one of Moolaadé’s keys, a richness that sustains viewers through scenes that are genuinely harrowing. Once immersed in the joy and anxiety of a stoush half-way around the world, there’s an overwhelming desire to stand and cheer from the sidelines. Colle’s compassion, determination and sense of right is the stuff of great art, superbly captured in what is undoubtedly a classic-in-waiting. // COLIN FRASER