johnny DaMusician

This movie is an intelligent look at what happens when young girls are in conflict with contemporary Western cultural values , the family and their own latent sense of self . It is beautiful . Only a crass person would not be able to see that the girl's burgeoning sense of self comes from her awareness that Muslim practice is too stilted, limited . Why can't girls have fun and be conscious of their physical selfs ? If this had been a French foreign film which it is in a sense but with white children -I think the response would have been different . The end shows the young child innocently moving her body playing jumprope . We assume in this safer environment she will more successfully maneuver the courses of womanhood . There are many scenes that scare one . Her dropping the phone of the 2nd wife of the never seen always "absent" father made me wonder what happened with the two wives dealing with the child's increasing alienation . Noone seems to notice . Only the aunt genuinely steps in during the girl's experience of menstruation . The mother is proud for her in her shot but barely smiles . The film is subtle . Europeans will easily get the thinly veiled critique against religious dogma , the difficulties of parenting , the hurt Muslim women who till this day secretly suffer when men take on 2nd 3rd? wives . The film shows the young girl's confusion . Another scene where she waits for her female member of her dancing troupe in the most outlandish outfit makes one think she has left home and is going to try and become a sex worker : that this notion occurs earlier when she wants to barter for the phone that has become her lifeline says more about the communities of Northern Africa and Europe or elsewhere than I not very well travelled American can attest to . This is a fine film . Mothers should see it to remind themselves of the difficulties they faced alone at new schools in new regions ; especially the dangers of this big city . I was glad to see other mothers covering their child's eyes when they danced and the fact that the girls had to hide their costumes outdoors says a lot . The outcry against this necessary artwork is ridiculous and I hope it puts Maimouna Ducoure on the map . Africans get struck down too easily in this world !

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