‘Moolaadé’: Acts of Courage

By Desson Thomson

IN “MOOLAADE,” six African girls refuse to undergo ritual circumcision and unwittingly cause a revolution in their village. In Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene’s hands, what could have been merely exotic spectacle becomes something astonishing, timely and deeply moving.
Like a set of talking drums, the film’s polyrhythms capture an abundance of themes: the emancipation of women, the perennial divisions between generations, the tumult between the old, spiritual world and the new, secular one. “Moolaade,” in short, is a movie to rock the soul.
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Africa/France/“Moolaade” by Ousmane Sembene