Moolaade review

A vibrantly coloured, feel-good drama about female genital mutilation is what Senegalese director Osusmane Sembene pulls off with this exuberant parable. The second of three films about heroism in everyday life, the setting is a small Muslim village in Burkina Faso, where four young girls, fleeing from their circumcision ceremony, seek refuge at the house of Collé - - much to the anger of the community's male elders. The Marxist Sembene doesn't gloss over the suffering endured by his female protagonist in her brave defiance of the patriarchal order, yet he also fills Moolaadé with a powerful vitality through songs, dancing and laughter.