is an eerie depiction of a strong tradition of the Senegalese people. The movie explores the barbarity of female genital mutilation with a focus on the human cost of this horrific and painful ritual set against the backdrop of contemporary Africa.
             The movie is set in a small African village in Senegal, where four young girls who are supposed to undergo the ritual circumcision flee to Colle's house- a woman who was able to keep her own daughter from taking part in the ritual. Colle's daughter was supposed to marry the heir to the tribal throne, and because of her resistance she causes havoc in her household. As the movie progresses, and the girls come to Colle for refugee, the tension and opposition in the village grows. Colle and her Moolade or sanctuary, is faced by the backwards village traditionalists who are enraged that she is opposing a time honored tradition. What was most shocking to me was that the men and woman alike took part in the opposition. Not only that, at times, it seemed that the women were more infuriated with Colle than the men, and the women were instigating the fury among the men. Till the very last bit of the movie, the women of the tribe who were proponents of genital mutilation were putting up the toughest battle for Colle, while the men deliberated on the side.
             The focus of the movie seemed to be less about the actual importance of the ritual, and more about the depiction of a backward society that is stuck to traditions which clearly make no sense- the suffering that the young girls undergo, and the risk of their death is clearly not worth holding the ritual, but it is the women who feel so strongly about maintaining it, and seemingly because it is a ritual that they are used to from the point of time and tradition- there seems to be no actual value attributed to the process. Colle can not stand to have her only child mutilated. She believes that the ritual was responsible for...