Cuties (Netflix)
Starring Fathia Youssouf as Amy, Médina El Aidi-Azouni as Angelica, Maïmouna Gueye as Mariam, Esther Gohourou as Coumba, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas as Jess, Myriam Hamma as Yasmine, Mbissine Therese Diop as the aunt
Directed by Maïmouna Doucouré
A huge, and as it turns out utterly misguided, debate has sprung up around this beautiful, sensitive depiction of an 11-year Senegalese black girl’s self-generated growth from childhood to maturity.
The film has been accused of ‘sexualizing’ children when in fact it does just the opposite. By showing the 11-year old protagonist Amy (the wonderful Fathia Youssouf) descend into premature adulthood the film actually crosses the line in pursuit of very uncomfortable questions regarding paedophilic reality shows where young children are exposed to a rampant voyeurism by judges (who should know better) giving points to girls for pouting and wriggling, thrusting and heaving imaginary bosoms.
So please don’t shoot the messenger.
Starring Fathia Youssouf as Amy, Médina El Aidi-Azouni as Angelica, Maïmouna Gueye as Mariam, Esther Gohourou as Coumba, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas as Jess, Myriam Hamma as Yasmine, Mbissine Therese Diop as the aunt
Directed by Maïmouna Doucouré
A huge, and as it turns out utterly misguided, debate has sprung up around this beautiful, sensitive depiction of an 11-year Senegalese black girl’s self-generated growth from childhood to maturity.
The film has been accused of ‘sexualizing’ children when in fact it does just the opposite. By showing the 11-year old protagonist Amy (the wonderful Fathia Youssouf) descend into premature adulthood the film actually crosses the line in pursuit of very uncomfortable questions regarding paedophilic reality shows where young children are exposed to a rampant voyeurism by judges (who should know better) giving points to girls for pouting and wriggling, thrusting and heaving imaginary bosoms.
So please don’t shoot the messenger.
- 9/16/2020
- by Subhash K Jha
- Bollyspice
Opinion'Cuties', a French drama that revolves around a group of pre-teen girls, ran into controversy recently as it was accused of sexualising them. Geetika MantriWhen I was around six or seven years old, I remember wearing a long skirt and top, looking in the mirror and trying to dance to ‘Chamma chamma’ from the 1998 Bollywood film China Gate. Starring Urmila Matondkar, 'Chamma chamma' is by all means an ‘item song’. While trying to copy Urmila’s moves, could my dancing be perceived as suggestive? Sure. But was I trying to be sexy or feeling sexual? No. Cuties, a French drama that revolves around four pre-teen girls, ran into controversy recently as it was accused of sexualising young girls. The film, the first feature by Maïmouna Doucouré, released on Netflix recently, and stars Fathia Youssouf, Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas and Maïmouna Gueye. Fathia plays 11-year-old Amy, a Muslim Senegalese immigrant with orthodox upbringing,...
- 9/14/2020
- by Geetika
- The News Minute
Netflix has apologized for and withdrawn a poster for its upcoming coming-of-age drama “Cuties.”
The artwork for the French-language film depicted four adolescent girls wearing revealing cheerleading outfits and posting provocatively, drawing backlash on social media for “sexualizing” little girls.
The Parents Television Council implored Netflix to remove the film, rated M, from its site.
“It is so revealing that the first major @netflix original to centre young Black girls hinges on explicitly sexualising 11 year old children,” Twitter user Claire Heuchan tweeted. “Whether it’s acting or music, a sexualised image is too often the price of mainstream success for Black women & girls. Disgraceful.”
It is so revealing that the first major @netflix original to centre young Black girls hinges on explicitly sexualising 11 year old children. Whether it’s acting or music, a sexualised image is too often the price of mainstream success for Black women & girls. Disgraceful. pic.twitter.
The artwork for the French-language film depicted four adolescent girls wearing revealing cheerleading outfits and posting provocatively, drawing backlash on social media for “sexualizing” little girls.
The Parents Television Council implored Netflix to remove the film, rated M, from its site.
“It is so revealing that the first major @netflix original to centre young Black girls hinges on explicitly sexualising 11 year old children,” Twitter user Claire Heuchan tweeted. “Whether it’s acting or music, a sexualised image is too often the price of mainstream success for Black women & girls. Disgraceful.”
It is so revealing that the first major @netflix original to centre young Black girls hinges on explicitly sexualising 11 year old children. Whether it’s acting or music, a sexualised image is too often the price of mainstream success for Black women & girls. Disgraceful. pic.twitter.
- 8/20/2020
- by Dave McNary and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Netflix has issued an apology for a poster for the film “Cuties” that was criticized online for sexualizing children.
The French-African film from director and writer Maïmouna Doucouré has been well-reviewed and won the Directing Award in the World Cinema Dramatic category at Sundance earlier this year. And while “Cuties” does not have content that sexualizes underage girls, the streamer admitted that the poster created by its PR team was “inappropriate.”
“We’re deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for ‘Mignonnes/Cuties.’ It was not Ok, nor was it representative of this French film which premiered at Sundance. We’ve now updated the pictures and description,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement.
Also Read: 'Cuties' Just Want to Dance in First Trailer for Sundance Darling on Netflix (Video)
The original American poster for “Cuties” issued by Netflix showed the four girls in the film striking suggestive...
The French-African film from director and writer Maïmouna Doucouré has been well-reviewed and won the Directing Award in the World Cinema Dramatic category at Sundance earlier this year. And while “Cuties” does not have content that sexualizes underage girls, the streamer admitted that the poster created by its PR team was “inappropriate.”
“We’re deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for ‘Mignonnes/Cuties.’ It was not Ok, nor was it representative of this French film which premiered at Sundance. We’ve now updated the pictures and description,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement.
Also Read: 'Cuties' Just Want to Dance in First Trailer for Sundance Darling on Netflix (Video)
The original American poster for “Cuties” issued by Netflix showed the four girls in the film striking suggestive...
- 8/20/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
The Sundance drama “Cuties” is a coming-of-age story about a girl from Senegal, but her story is a universal one that shows that we’d all rather dance than have to grow up and face the world.
Netflix picked up the inspiring film “Cuties” out of Sundance from director and writer Maïmouna Doucouré after it won the Directing Award in the World Cinema Dramatic category at the festival earlier this year.
In “Cuties,” an 11-year-old girl from Senegal Amy tries to escape family dysfunction by joining a free-spirited dance clique named “Cuties.” The group stands in stark contrast to her mother’s traditional values, and she soon becomes aware of her own femininity well beyond her years through dance. She soon inspires the girls to embrace more sensual dance moves as part of their routine even as she begins to face the realities of growing up, and they hope to...
Netflix picked up the inspiring film “Cuties” out of Sundance from director and writer Maïmouna Doucouré after it won the Directing Award in the World Cinema Dramatic category at the festival earlier this year.
In “Cuties,” an 11-year-old girl from Senegal Amy tries to escape family dysfunction by joining a free-spirited dance clique named “Cuties.” The group stands in stark contrast to her mother’s traditional values, and she soon becomes aware of her own femininity well beyond her years through dance. She soon inspires the girls to embrace more sensual dance moves as part of their routine even as she begins to face the realities of growing up, and they hope to...
- 8/18/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
"What are you doing, Amy? Who are you, Amy?" Netflix has unveiled an official trailer for an indie film titled Cuties, which originally premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The film marks the feature directorial debut of French-Senegalese filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré, and it's a French feature that will be available streaming on Netflix in September. Amy, an 11 year old Senegalese girl, tries to escape family dysfunction by joining a free-spirited dance clique named "Cuties," growing up as they become aware of their own femininity through dance. The full cast includes Fathia Youssouf, Médina El Aidi, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah, Myriam Hamma, Demba Diaw, Maïmouna Gueye, and Therese M'Bissine Diop. Early reviews from Sundance say that "Cuties is a contemporary view into a fundamental change of life in a modern world of unknown circumstances and how to survive them." A film that will make you think. Here's the official...
- 8/18/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Eleven-year-old Senegalese immigrant Amy (Fathia Youssouf) reckons there are two ways to be a woman. Amy could mimic her mom (Maïmouna Gueye), a dutiful drudge with three kids and a husband who’s just announced he’s bringing home a second wife. Or she could copy the “Cuties,” a quartet of brazen girls who wear tube tops to class, screech “Freedom!” in the hallways, and rehearse their dance crew after school. Either way, the new-in-town 6th grader is ready to select a lane and speed toward maturity.
To writer-director Maïmouna Doucouré, the choice is simple. Her coming-of-age drama starts with Amy doodling stick figures and climaxes with the kid booty-shaking in hot pants. The choice is also false, but , which can make the film feel as subtle as a headache.
“Cuties” is an extension of Doucouré’s 2016 César- and Sundance-winning short “Maman(s)”, about an 8-year-old child furious when her...
To writer-director Maïmouna Doucouré, the choice is simple. Her coming-of-age drama starts with Amy doodling stick figures and climaxes with the kid booty-shaking in hot pants. The choice is also false, but , which can make the film feel as subtle as a headache.
“Cuties” is an extension of Doucouré’s 2016 César- and Sundance-winning short “Maman(s)”, about an 8-year-old child furious when her...
- 1/24/2020
- by Amy Nicholson
- Variety Film + TV
Eleven-year-old Amy (a revelatory Fathia Youssouf Abdillah) already has an eye for petty misdeeds before falling in with the titular “cuties” of Maimouna Doucouré’s feature debut. The sweet, gangly tween is no stranger to tiny acts of rebellion that both mystify and thrill her, as if even she can’t believe what she’s getting up to in the liminal space between childhood and adulthood. Sticky-fingered and hyper-observant, Amy doesn’t miss a trick, characteristics that not only set her apart from her family but also make her something of a curiosity at her local school. Recently moved into a bustling French apartment building and a dizzyingly busy middle school, Amy is in state of massive transition, and that’s before the physical demands of puberty start to infiltrate every inch of her body and mind.
, and despite the specificity of Amy’s story — her family, culture, background, and...
, and despite the specificity of Amy’s story — her family, culture, background, and...
- 1/24/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
A perfect illustration of growing up today, French director Maïmouna Doucouré’s spirited debut “Cuties” assesses the transition from childhood to adolescence by pointing its lens at an 11-year-old girl at the crossroads of tradition and personal discovery. It’s the type of first feature that heralds an indelible directorial voice.
Echoes of Céline Sciamma’s “Girlhood,” Mati Diop’s “Atlantics,” or Nijla Mumin’s “Jinn” are strident, but the age gap separating the teens in those efforts and the young lead here strongly distinguishes this new film from its forebears. Although not breaking untraveled ground, “Cuties” is a necessary new entry among these idiosyncratic narratives centered on black girlhood going against the grain of the status quo, and no less noteworthy for that.
Exposed to loads of instantly reachable information, both detrimental and advantageous, kids raised on online gratification inevitably mature at a faster rate, or so at first...
Echoes of Céline Sciamma’s “Girlhood,” Mati Diop’s “Atlantics,” or Nijla Mumin’s “Jinn” are strident, but the age gap separating the teens in those efforts and the young lead here strongly distinguishes this new film from its forebears. Although not breaking untraveled ground, “Cuties” is a necessary new entry among these idiosyncratic narratives centered on black girlhood going against the grain of the status quo, and no less noteworthy for that.
Exposed to loads of instantly reachable information, both detrimental and advantageous, kids raised on online gratification inevitably mature at a faster rate, or so at first...
- 1/24/2020
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
Cuties
Winner of the Global Filmmaking Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 for the screenplay of her first feature Cuties (Mignonnes), Maïmouna Doucouré reteamed with producer Bien ou Bien Productions Sylvain De Zangroniz for a debut that pit non-professionals with actress Maïmouna Gueye. Doucouré won both a César, a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and Best International Short at Tiff for her 2015 short film, Maman(s). Doucoure’s cast includes Fathia Youssouf, Medina El Aidi-Azouni, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas, Myriam Hamma and Maimouna Gueye. Netflix landed the title.
Gist: Co-written by Alice Winocour, Nathalie Saugeon and Valentine Milville, pre-teenager Amy discovers in her new elementary school a group of dancers called “Cuties”.…...
Winner of the Global Filmmaking Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 for the screenplay of her first feature Cuties (Mignonnes), Maïmouna Doucouré reteamed with producer Bien ou Bien Productions Sylvain De Zangroniz for a debut that pit non-professionals with actress Maïmouna Gueye. Doucouré won both a César, a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and Best International Short at Tiff for her 2015 short film, Maman(s). Doucoure’s cast includes Fathia Youssouf, Medina El Aidi-Azouni, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas, Myriam Hamma and Maimouna Gueye. Netflix landed the title.
Gist: Co-written by Alice Winocour, Nathalie Saugeon and Valentine Milville, pre-teenager Amy discovers in her new elementary school a group of dancers called “Cuties”.…...
- 1/1/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Mignonnes
French director Maïmouna Doucouré won a Global Filmmaking Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 for the screenplay of her first feature Mignonnes, which should be ready to premiere in 2019. Produced by Sylvain De Zangroniz through Bien ou Bien Productions, a cast of non-professionals is joined by Maïmouna Gueye. Doucouré won both a Cesar, a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and was a Tiff favorite for her celebrated 2015 short film, Maman(s).
Gist: Co-written by Alice Winocour, Nathalie Saugeon and Valentine Milville, pre-teenager Amy discovers in her new elementary school a group of dancers called: “Les Mignonnes”.…...
French director Maïmouna Doucouré won a Global Filmmaking Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 for the screenplay of her first feature Mignonnes, which should be ready to premiere in 2019. Produced by Sylvain De Zangroniz through Bien ou Bien Productions, a cast of non-professionals is joined by Maïmouna Gueye. Doucouré won both a Cesar, a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and was a Tiff favorite for her celebrated 2015 short film, Maman(s).
Gist: Co-written by Alice Winocour, Nathalie Saugeon and Valentine Milville, pre-teenager Amy discovers in her new elementary school a group of dancers called: “Les Mignonnes”.…...
- 1/3/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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