Moolaadé
(2004)
A great-looking, great-sounding film, whose heart is is the right place, but polemic even in protest of Senegalese female genital mutilation is still polemic, and it rarely results in good art.Still, there are a few haunting, surreal scenes: women sitting in nighttime vigil in front of an open-air shower, standing one at a time like the villagers in Seven Samurai to decry their menfolk's confiscation of their dangerously educational radios; the growing pile of those radios in front of the mosque, each having been left on when it was discarded; the pursuit of a fleeing merchant by a lynch mob, their faces painted white. Plus, there are some damned cute animals in the village, especially them baby goats!
In any case, it's hard to dismiss a film that ends with a shot of a TV antenna as a triumph of knowledge over ignorance.
3 comments:
saw this at ebertfest, loved it
I didn't think it was very good as a movie, but at least it provides a memorable glimpse into a society we seldom see.
Right. How is it, though, that occasionally you see obviously nonprofessional actors in something and they manage to strike just the right, raw note, but usually you see nonprofessional actors and you say, "Jesus, hire actors!"
Post a Comment