Moolaadé

Synopsis

In a sun-drenched mud-brick village in Burkina Faso, a courageous woman who refused to let her own daughter undergo female genital mutilation ties a colorful yarn rope across her courtyard entrance to invoke 'Moolaadé'—an ancient, inviolable magical sanctuary protection—sheltering four terrified young girls fleeing the village circumcisers, enduring public beatings and the seizure of women's radios by village elders to defend their bodily autonomy. Ousmane Sembène's Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning triumphant final masterpiece starring Fatoumata Coulibaly.