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Moolaadé
New Yorker Films

Moolaadé reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 91 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.9 out of 10
based on 26 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 10 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

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

What The Critics Said

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.
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100
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The result: This great work of art has the potential to change the world.
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100
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
This sometimes harrowing, often delightful drama stands with his (Sembène) most compassionate, colorful, and artfully filmed works.
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100
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A beautiful picture with a great heart, a classic-to-be with a common touch.
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100
Washington Post Desson Thomson
Moolaade, in short, is a movie to rock the soul.
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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.
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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.
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100
Boston Globe Ty Burr
It's worth stressing how deeply pleasurable Moolaad is to watch.
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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.
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100
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
As empowering and triumphant a film as you'll see this or any year.
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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.
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90
LA Weekly Scott Foundas
Quite possibly the most buoyant, exuberant film ever made on such an unpleasant topic.
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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.
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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.
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90
Variety Scott Foundas
This richly textured parable feels every inch the work of a master.
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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.
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88
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Fatoumata Coulibaly's peformance is striking. She plays her character with a mixture of determination and compassion.
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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.
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83
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Brilliantly colored and passionately acted, Moolaade teems with incidents, personalities and drama and is never less than vivid.
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80
Empire David Parkinson
Poetic, provocative and unstoppably powerful. But, depressingly, it probably won't change a thing.
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80
TV Guide Ken Fox
A marvelously entertaining, deeply moving treatment of a highly controversial practice: female genital mutilation.
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75
New York Post V.A. Musetto
A rousing indictment of a barbaric practice.
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75
San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Curiel
Not always pleasant to watch.
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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.
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60
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
As drama the film mostly serves to illustrate the two sides of this crucial social debate in Africa.
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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.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!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.

Bill F. gave it a10:
Phenomenal. Humane and insightful.

Chad S. gave it a6:
Like Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing", "Moolaade" is shot at a real location, but there's a self-conscious staginess that makes the village feel like it exists on a soundstage. Some of the cast members seem like unprofessional actors who would benefit from a neo-realist approach rather than have them emote as if they were in a play. The horror of female genitalia mutilitation was already formed in my mind, and nothing in "Moolaade" added to it. What this movie does do well is show how traditions in non-western cultures are overtly patriarchal and detrimental for women. The final image, showing how the infiltration of the west is a compromise that's beneficial for the progress of women's rights, is a flash of visual wit that ends a muddled film with an exclamation point.

Don gave it a10:
Masterpiece!

Eleanor M. gave it a7:
An important topic, and worth seeing for the subject matter. For me though, it is a story that would have been better told documentary style.

Frank P. gave it a 9:
Very thoughtful and beautiful exploration of village African life and it's customs. Important commentary on genital mutilation. All should see it.

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