Moolaadé
Metascore
91 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 26 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 26
  3. Negative: 0 out of 26
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    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.
  2. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    100
    A beautiful picture with a great heart, a classic-to-be with a common touch.
  3. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    100
    It's worth stressing how deeply pleasurable Moolaad is to watch.
  4. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    100
    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.
  5. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    100
    This sometimes harrowing, often delightful drama stands with his (Sembène) most compassionate, colorful, and artfully filmed works.
  6. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    100
    The result: This great work of art has the potential to change the world.
  7. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    100
    As empowering and triumphant a film as you'll see this or any year.
  8. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Melissa Levine
    100
    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.
  9. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    100
    To skip Moolaade would be to miss an opportunity to experience the embracing, affirming, world-changing potential of humanist cinema at its finest.
  10. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    100
    Moolaade, in short, is a movie to rock the soul.
  11. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    100
    This is a masterwork by Ousmane Sembene, the 81-year-old father of African cinema and one of Senegal's greatest novelists.
  12. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    90
    Quite possibly the most buoyant, exuberant film ever made on such an unpleasant topic.
  13. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    90
    This has to be the most richly entertaining movie anyone has ever made on the subject of female genital mutilation.
  14. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    90
    There's such a rich sense of the fullness of life in Moolaadé that it sustains those passages that are truly and necessarily harrowing.
  15. Variety
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    90
    This richly textured parable feels every inch the work of a master.
  16. The New Republic
    Reviewed by: Stanley Kauffmann
    90
    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.
  17. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    88
    It's a deceptively simple tale that tackles, serenely and with surprising humor, issues of gender, power, custom and change.
  18. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    88
    Fatoumata Coulibaly's peformance is striking. She plays her character with a mixture of determination and compassion.
  19. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    83
    Brilliantly colored and passionately acted, Moolaade teems with incidents, personalities and drama and is never less than vivid.
  20. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    80
    A marvelously entertaining, deeply moving treatment of a highly controversial practice: female genital mutilation.
  21. Empire
    Reviewed by: David Parkinson
    80
    Poetic, provocative and unstoppably powerful. But, depressingly, it probably won't change a thing.
  22. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    A rousing indictment of a barbaric practice.
  23. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Curiel
    75
    Not always pleasant to watch.
  24. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    70
    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.
  25. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    60
    As drama the film mostly serves to illustrate the two sides of this crucial social debate in Africa.
  26. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Phil Hall
    40
    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.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.7 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 19 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. joomjim4
    10
    A brave piece and considered personally to be an accomplished piece of cinematic achievement from the African film industry. A film that gives out a powerful political message in such a humorous, charming and heroic way that makes it a special one to watch. A perfect morality tale.… Full Review »
  2. ryancarroll88
    9
    In a small village in Africa, a woman stands up to tribal traditions by harboring 4 girls in her house who refuse to partake in "purification' - a mandatory ritual for all women to become married. She uses the tribes own superstitions against them by summoning a 'moolaade,' a spirit who will protect the children from the tribals entering her house. Furthermore, the tribe chief's cosmopolitan son is set to marry the same woman's daughter, only to find out she is a balikoro (unpurified). A foreign street is also there to pass judgment on the whole situation in this fascinating watch.… Full Review »
  3. BillF.
    10
    Phenomenal. Humane and insightful.
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