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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
MOOLAADÉ
Instantly the viewer is thrust into the life of a West African village. Four young girls have
escaped a “purification” ceremony, where they were to be circumcised, and plead for sanctuary
from Collé (Fatoumata Coulibaly), a woman known for protecting her daughter from the
potentially lethal ritual. Collé had been “cut” as an adolescent. As a result, she bears a
long, jagged scar across her abdomen from the difficult birth. Refusing to turn the girls over to the
priestesses who are demanding their return, Collé ties a ribbon across her home's threshold and declares whoever crosses the line will be punished by the Moolaadé, the
village’s guardian spirit. In a showdown where subtitles are not necessary and everything you
need to know is told through body language, Collé stands up to these mostly older women,
daring them to cross the line. In reaction to Collé’s disobedience, the male elders forbid all
women from listening to the radio, their lifeline to the outside world, and take punitive measures
to break Collé’s will, mentally and physically.
The hierarchy among the women (Collé is one of her husband’s three wives) and within
the village becomes apparent, as is the community’s adherence to both Islam and its traditional
beliefs. (A 150-year-old ostrich egg rests atop of the adobe mosque.) The film’s universal themes - the inevitability of change, the subjugation of women - are abundantly clear. Ousmane
Sembene, 81, remarkably directs a cast of mostly nonprofessionals. Rousing without preaching,
this is an effortlessly compelling story that doesn’t resort to graphic violence. Instead, the
violence is psychological. Hardly a screed, there is plenty of humor throughout.
Moolaadé is certainly the strongest effort among the recent films concerning women in the
Muslim world (FireDancer, Silent Waters). Kent Turner
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