Moolaade

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Moolaade ★★ Protection 2004

Eighty-one-year-old Senegalese filmmaker/activist Sembene focuses on the practice of female genital mutilation that still occurs in a number of African countries. In a small village, Colle (Coulibaly), the fearless second wife of a village elder, refuses to allow her daughter Amasatou (Traore) to undergo the purification ceremony that has caused her own lifelong pain. She then becomes the protector of four young girls, also fleeing the ceremony, who seek sanctuary. To defend the girls, Colle invokes the traditional protective spirit of the title so the girls cannot be removed from her care and discovers her resistance is considered a threat to the social order of village life. Bambara and French with subtitles. 124m/C Fatoumata Coulibaly, Malmouna Helene Diarra, Salimata Traore, Dominique T. Zeida, Mah Compaore, Aminata Dao; D: Ousmane Sembene; W: Ousmane Sembene; C: Dominique Gentil; M: Boncana Maiga.