Moolaade

Moolaade is a film from Sengal directed by Ousmane Sembene. This film is centered around the practice of female genital mutilation. A local woman in the village is known for protecting girls from having to go through this practice. When girls are about nine, their mothers send them off with a particular group of older woman who prepare them for the cutting. Most girls in the village who go through this die because of an excess amount of blood or infection. A group of girls run away from their mothers to Colle for protection. Colle keeps them safe in her home but she is up against everyone else in the village who believes the girls need to go with the elders. As the film goes on, Colle is shown protecting these girls in any way that she can against the elders because she believes that it is not right to put them through this horrible, unnecessary act when most girls die because of it. One of the girls are taken away from Colle by her mother and taken to the elder woman, she ends up dying because of the cutting. Colle is taken to the elders to defend herself and she is beaten in the middle of the village by her husband in front of everyone. All the woman who are on her side are telling her to stay strong and the elders are waiting for her to break down. Colle survives the beating and saves the girls from going through this horrible act. This film shows the reality of what goes on in the world to these innocent girl everyday, dying for no reason.

There are feminist themes throughout this whole film. These girls are being tortured for no reason other than the men want them to be pure. These girls are dying everyday by the horrible ritual that has been going on for way to long. Half of the woman in the village believe that these girls need to have this done and the other half don't. Colle stands up for all the girls in the village who can't protect themselves.

Even though the content of this film is very deep, the film is directed beautifully. It really makes you feel like you are living there life with them and going through this with all the woman in the village. As the audience, you want to protect these girls just as much as Colle does. This film opened my eyes to what these girls really are going through and how dangerous it really is for them.