MOOLAADÉ
Directed & Written by: Ousmane Sembene.
Director of Photography: Dominique Gentil.
Edited by: Abdellatif Raïss.
Music by: Boncana Maïga.
Released by: New Yorker Films.
Language: Jula & French with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Senegal/France. 124 min. Not Rated.
With: Fatoumata Coulibaly, Maïmouna Hélène Diarra, Salimata Traoré & Dominique T. Zeïda.

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
October 15, 2004