Izzy Ounsted

Period 1

1. Title of Film: Moolaadè

2. Year of Release: December 7, 2004

3. Language of Original Film: Bambara, French

4. Director: Ousmane Sembene

5. Actors: Fatoumata Coulibaly, Maimouna Hélène Diarra, Salimata Traoré

6. In a small african village, girls are still expected to be “purified” in their young

years. A mother named Collé decides to protect four young girls from the rest of the

village after they run away from their “purification” ceremony. The film also focuses

on a rich son of one of the village leaders coming back from Paris to marry Amasatou,

Collé’s unpurified daughter and the uproar in the village surrounding the reality of

more and more people protecting the girls and disagreeing with their traditions of

purification. The woman in the village also face the challenge of having their personal

radios taken away and burned by their husbands, as the men in the village believe that

what the women are exposed to should be limited as it broadens their minds and gets

them to start thinking independently. The men in the village are fully against marriage

to a bilakoro woman, which is a woman who has not been “purified”. Overall it is a

brilliantly put together film about women overcoming the societal struggles placed

upon them simply because of their gender.

7. The social issues that this movie addresses are female genital mutilation, and

women’s suppression. I believe that the target audience of this movie are the people

that are not aware of the seriousness of how a lot of people in these villages are

expected to live. It could also be directed at women living in similar circumstances to

these because it is definitely a rebellious film in that the likeable characters are the

ones challenging the authority put in place by the men. It could be seen as a way to

give hope to women living in similar circumstances. In western culture the way of life
 Izzy Ounsted

Period 1

portrayed in this film are completely alien. Things that these women are expected to

deal with would be unacceptable in our society. If the girls decide to fight against

genital mutilation then they face extreme ridicule from the village and will most likely

remain unmarried. If they go through with the mutilation then they face extreme pain

and in a lot of cases, death. Neither decision is really a great one but this is what their

lives are. Husbands have so much more freedom to do what they want, they are even

able to have multiple wives. The whole idea of genital mutilation is for women to stay

faithful to their husbands while they are away however men are allowed to be married

to multiple women without anyone batting an eyelid. At one point in the movie,

Collé’s husband was told to beat her because she was not being obedient to him. It

was obvious that he was not comfortable to do this however he had no choice because

all of the other men expected it from him. Collé’s husband himself was not angry

towards his wife standing up for her beliefs but it is the insanely man orientated

authority in the village that keep him to the same standard of suppressing women. At

one point Collé told her husbands two other wives that she hated him and they seemed

to be in agreement. From that it doesn’t seem that divorce is an option for the women,

just another way to suppress them. Some more issues seen in the film were that of

arranged marriages and marriages to extremely young girls. When the leaders son first

comes back to the village, his father tells him that he has already married him to an

eleven year old girl. He said that he would not allow for his son to marry a girl who

had not been purified. This also shows the low views that people have on bilakoro

girls, or girls who have not had their genitals mutilated. It also addresses the topic of

underage marriages. The mercenary was the only person who confronted the leaders

son about the fact that he and his father were pedophiles for marrying him to an
 Izzy Ounsted

Period 1

eleven year old girl. But in the village it was seen as something that was okay. It was

seen as okay because it was keeping him from marrying a bilakoro girl.

8. I absolutely loved this film and the message that it gave. It strongly supported

throwing away hurtful, unnecessary traditions for people's well being and happiness.

And it supported women's empowerment which is a big one for me. In all honesty the

film did play into what I imagine Africa to be like with the dirt buildings and the way

people dress. When I was first introduced to the idea of genital mutilation I just saw it

as gross, I never thought about the real and emotional impact that it has on girls in

these circumstances and not only the girls themselves but the people around them.

Two of the six girls in the film who ran away from the purification ceremony

commited suicide by falling into a well. And the fact that it is damaging enough to

girls to where they would rather kill themselves than go through it, well then how can

anyone think that it is the right thing to do? The women who performed the

mutilations used extremely dirty looking knives and didn’t seem to care about the

girls who died from the procedure. One comment that stuck out to me was made by

one of the male leaders of the village. After having it explained to him that Amasatou

would not be able to consummate his sons marriage for one to five days the male

leader made joking comment about how his son wouldn’t be able to keep his erection

for one to five days. What this comment showed was the complete disregard for the

women in the village. The fact that this procedure that men demanded in order to

marry the women would keep Amasatou from being able to have sex for a few days

and instead of caring about her, the man instead only saw the annoyance that it would

cause his son. This film made me see the more real side of female genital mutilation

and the horrible way that women in these communities are viewed by men.
 Izzy Ounsted

Period 1

9. There were obviously numerous cultural differences between what was seen in this

film and what I am used to in my daily life. The houses and clothing were the two

most prominent. Buildings were made of what looked like mud and some bricks.

Also, it was expected for people to take their shoes off before they entered buildings

even if the floor in that building was still dirt. The clothing worn was very flowy and

open. All females wore skirts or dresses and all men wore loose pants and a loose

fitting shirt. The dialogue in the humor was a lot cruder than I expected from this

culture and was actually pretty funny at times. However a lot of their jokes were

based on the serious matters that the film was combatting so it was eye opening that

they were so used to these daily problems that they had turned into jokes for the

villagers. Economics wise we were shown with the mercenary how someone could

buy things almost on credit and then another person would be expected to pay for

them later on. I guess it is the same idea as buying things with a credit card but it was

still strange to see. Another thing that really stuck out to me was that if someone

wanted to take a shower they would have to have another person behind them

pumping the water for them. One thing that this presented was a strong sense of

community between the women. As they were all dealing with the same hardships and

it was necessary for people to help each other.

10. The main difference between this film and films that I would regularly watch was the

lack of special effects. It was a low budget movie that didn’t make much compared to

what popular movies make. But I think the effect of not having special effects was

that you were able to make your own interpretations of people and situations. One

part that would’ve been better with improved special effects would be the whipping

scene. Collé had very minimal reactions to getting whipped by her husband and the

reactions were quite repetitive. One thing that the filmmaker did to better convey the
 Izzy Ounsted

Period 1

setting and atmosphere was how they would switch to empty looking shots were it

was just a dirty looking child walking around or two goats hopping over a rope, small

shots to convey the poor village vibe. This movie lacked a lot of dramatic music

which otherwise would have swayed you to automatically feel a certain way during

scenes. Instead there was only dialogue for most of the movie which let your mind do

it’s own thinking about how you felt about what was going on. I could tell that the

english subtitles skipped some words but I felt that the dialogue was well put together.

The characters started off being quite flat but by the end of the film each character had

their own input to the film in their own way and you were able to see a different side

of them. The film stands for itself and recognizes itself as a serious film tackling

serious issues in a theatrical way.

11. The films topic relates to the Identity, Privilege, and Inequalities unit that we did in

class. The film rebels against gender inequalities in the african village. Female genital

mutilation is a gender inequality in itself. Because girls don’t have a say in whether it

is done to them or not and it is not something that males are expected to endure. Even

the reasoning behind it shows an inequality. It also is supposed to be about cleanliness

but it is primarily to keep women loyal while their husbands are away even though the

men in these communities are allowed to have multiple wives. In class we talked

extensively about the different ways that women's rights are suppressed and that even

though things in our country have greatly improved they are still not perfect. This film

shows the extremes of gender inequality in other cultures and points out the fact that

this is a reality for millions of girls and women around the world.

12. I believe that you assign an international film because it gives us a better perspective

on the issues that we discuss in class, at least that is what I got out of this assignment.

And I believe that it is an international film because americanized films don’t always
 Izzy Ounsted

Period 1

portray these issues in a real or truly thoughtful way. For instance, movies about

human trafficking are taken over by Liam Neeson’s stunt double. Movies about drug

cartels are turned into jokes. I feel like foreign films aren’t afraid to be real about the

topics that they address. Foreign films often get ridiculed for being inappropriate or

centered around drugs or sex, but those are real issues that shouldn’t be brushed over

just because people are uncomfortable watching it.