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67
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65
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64
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62
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61
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61
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58
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57
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57
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
55
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55
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55
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54
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54
Get Smart
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
49
Hancock
48
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47
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44
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41
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37
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37
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37
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36
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36
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35
Jumper
34
Happening, The
34
10,000 B.C.
33
Superhero Movie
31
Deception
24
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22
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xx
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xx
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xx
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75
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84
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84
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83
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83
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83
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83
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83
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82
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81
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80
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80
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79
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79
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79
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78
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76
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76
Shotgun Stories
75
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75
Mongol
74
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73
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72
Woman on the Beach
72
Priceless
72
Tuya's Marriage
72
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71
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71
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71
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70
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70
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70
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70
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69
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69
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69
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68
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68
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68
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67
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66
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66
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64
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64
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64
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64
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64
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63
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63
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63
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62
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62
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62
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62
Kiss the Bride
61
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61
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60
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60
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60
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59
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57
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56
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56
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56
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55
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55
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55
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55
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55
Without the King
54
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53
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52
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52
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52
Mother of Tears, The
52
My Blueberry Nights
51
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51
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51
Savage Grace
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
47
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45
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38
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Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Moolaadé
New Yorker Films
FILM:
MPAA RATING: Not Rated
Starring
Fatoumata Coulibaly,
Maimouna Hélène Diarra,
Salimata Traoré,
Aminata Dao,
Dominique Zeïda,
and
Mah Compaoré
A rousing polemic directed against the still common African practice of female circumcision. (New Yorker Films)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Foreign
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Ousmane Sembene
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Ousmane Sembene
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
Theatrical: October 15, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
124 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Senegal / France |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
Jula / French (with English subtitles) |
Un Certain Regard Award and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention, 2004 Cannes Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
To skip Moolaade would be to miss an opportunity to experience the embracing, affirming, world-changing potential of humanist cinema at its finest.

100
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
The result: This great work of art has the potential to change the world.

100
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
This sometimes harrowing, often delightful drama stands with his (Sembène) most compassionate, colorful, and artfully filmed works.

100
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
A beautiful picture with a great heart, a classic-to-be with a common touch.

100
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Moolaade, in short, is a movie to rock the soul.

100
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
This is a masterwork by Ousmane Sembene, the 81-year-old father of African cinema and one of Senegal's greatest novelists.

100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
This was for me the best film at Cannes 2004, a story vibrating with urgency and life. It makes a powerful statement and at the same time contains humor, charm and astonishing visual beauty.

100
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
It's worth stressing how deeply pleasurable Moolaad is to watch.

100
Dallas Observer
Melissa Levine
It's not easy to pull off a good morality tale. That's why Moolaad, the new film from 81-year-old Senegalese writer-director Ousmane Sembene, feels like such an exceptional success. Its moral center is painfully clear, but so is its humanity.

100
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
As empowering and triumphant a film as you'll see this or any year.

100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Once in a rare while a film comes along that is boldly original, communicates an important idea in an elegantly simple fashion and happens to be highly entertaining. Such is the case with Moolaadé.

90
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas
Quite possibly the most buoyant, exuberant film ever made on such an unpleasant topic.

90
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
There's such a rich sense of the fullness of life in Moolaadé that it sustains those passages that are truly and necessarily harrowing.

90
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
Sembène's love of his people and his commitment to the richness that underlies the poverty of their condition have always made his films gems of truth, as they do once again here.

90
Variety
Scott Foundas
This richly textured parable feels every inch the work of a master.

90
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
This has to be the most richly entertaining movie anyone has ever made on the subject of female genital mutilation.

88
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Fatoumata Coulibaly's peformance is striking. She plays her character with a mixture of determination and compassion.

88
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
It's a deceptively simple tale that tackles, serenely and with surprising humor, issues of gender, power, custom and change.

83
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
Brilliantly colored and passionately acted, Moolaade teems with incidents, personalities and drama and is never less than vivid.

80
Empire
David Parkinson
Poetic, provocative and unstoppably powerful. But, depressingly, it probably won't change a thing.

80
TV Guide
Ken Fox
A marvelously entertaining, deeply moving treatment of a highly controversial practice: female genital mutilation.

75
New York Post
V.A. Musetto
A rousing indictment of a barbaric practice.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Jonathan Curiel
Not always pleasant to watch.

70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
Though Moolaadé doesn't shy away from the task of educating its viewers about the brutality of "purification," it works equally well as a tribute to righteous defiance wherever it surfaces.

60
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
As drama the film mostly serves to illustrate the two sides of this crucial social debate in Africa.

40
Film Threat
Phil Hall
Achieves the impossible in taking a genuine socio-political tragedy and turning it into an anvil drama which will fray the patience of the most sympathetic audiences.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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