Cuties
In a controversial French drama now on Netflix, an 11-year-old girl from Senegal is torn between tradition and some hot new dance moves.
Rage of innocence: Fathia Youssouf Abdillahi
In its
modest way, Maïmouna Doucouré's Cuties
is one of the most shocking films of the year. Opening with a scene of innocent,
childish horseplay, it then follows our heroine, the eleven-year-old Aminata ‘Amy’
Diop, to a Muslim prayer meeting. There, the female elder reveals that “in
hell, there will be many more women than men. That is why we must heed the
words of Allah. Where does evil dwell? In the bodies of uncovered women. We must obey our husbands.” Amy, her angelic
features enshrouded in a blue, patterned hijab, is the picture of incorruptibility.
Then, just as the women get up to leave, she scoops up and pockets a string of
prayer beads – or misbaḥah – dropped by one of the attendees. The angel is
unmasked. It’s a fleeting moment, but enough to establish that Amy is not a doormat.
She, her mother Mariam and her two younger brothers have just moved from
Senegal to a French apartment block, awaiting word from Amy’s father. However,
Amy’s world could be anywhere on earth and it’s not until her first day at
school that Maïmouna Doucouré opens up her canvas to reveal an urban Parisian playground.
It’s one of the film’s most inspiring moments when, as the school administrator
is sorting Amy out, every child in the yard freezes in mid-play. It’s a premeditated
prank, a sort of inverse flash mob which, judging by the expression on Amy’s
face, seeds the germ of rebellious possibility.
Doucouré,
whose first feature this is, was born in Paris to Senegalese parents, but her main
beef is not the sexist dictates of Allah. As Amy finds her feet in this wild,
modern wonderland fuelled by peer pressure and social media, the girl obviously
wants to fit in. And as she shakes off the shackles of her African upbringing, her
new momentum is not only understandable but frightening. And Cuties – named after the dance troupe
that Amy so desperately wants to be a part of – is an alchemy of two overriding
factors. Doucouré, whose short Maman(s)
(2015) won top honours at Sundance, Toronto and the Césars, is an accomplished director.
Artfully cutting back and forth between the kitchen sink cinéma-vérité of Amy’s home life and the sexy, high-octane beat of pre-teen
attitude, Doucouré creates a giddying clash of cultures.
But the
director’s true coup is the casting of Fathia Youssouf Abdillahi, chosen out of
700 hopefuls, who inhabits the role of Amy with a head-spinning combination of ingenuousness
and guile. And, as she apes the robotic Terpsichorean antics of the ‘Cuties’, she
even cuts some impressive dance moves. Here, Doucouré is most troubled – and where
the film has met some controversy (it has been banned in Turkey). Her point is
that today’s youth is victim of an increasingly sexualised social media and
where a young girl’s self-esteem is governed by who ‘likes’ her provocative
posturing on various digital platforms. At times recalling a French distaff version
of Good Boys – albeit without the
guilty chuckles – Cuties addresses very
serious issues with forthright conviction (as only the French can). While most
of our own rites-of-passage would have had our parents cringe in disavowal,
today’s battlefield is far more debilitating in the demolition of an
untarnished childhood. In direct contrast to the film’s opening scene of
Islamic brainwashing, when Amy overhears fellow students misinterpret the
extreme porn they are watching on a phone, the blood curdles.
However,
while attempting to bridge the gap of two opposing worlds, Maïmouna Doucouré is
not always successful. As Amy gets more and more out of control at home, her
mother – who has discovered that her husband has re-married – seems implausibly
tolerant. Much of the tension of the earlier scenes arises from Amy’s flaunting
of the house rules, such as daring to visit a secret room in the apartment.
Then, when her father asks to talk to her on her mother’s mobile phone, she
chucks it out the window. And retribution comes there none. This rather undermines
the domestic dynamic, while the film’s second half – in which the Cuties enter
a dance competition – plays with Hollywood convention. Neither works to the
film’s benefit. Still, Amy’s turbulent freefall from grace – and the traditions
that still underpin her psyche – make for captivating drama. And the
spontaneity that Doucouré captures from her young actors is a true wonder.
Original
title: Mignonnes.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Fathia Youssouf Abdillahi, Medina
El Aidi, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas, Myriam Hamma, Maïmouna Gueye, Mbissine
Thérèse Diop, Demba Diaw, Mamadou Samaké, Bass Dhem.
Dir Maïmouna Doucouré, Pro Zangro, Screenplay Maïmouna Doucouré, Ph
Yann Maritaud, Pro Des Julie Wassef, Ed Mathilde Van de Moortel and Stéphane
Mazalaigue, Music Nicolas Nocchi –
aka Niko Noki.
Bien ou Bien Productions/France 3 Cinéma-Netflix.
95 mins. France. 2020. Rel: 9 September 2020. Available on Netflix. Cert. 15.