Director of ‘Cuties’ Defends Her Film Against Many Accusations Revealing Main Aim Of The Film

Cuties, the French indie film, is the first feature film of the director Maïmouna Doucouré. This year, this movie earned her the directing award at the Sundance Film Festival. But not everyone was so positive about this movie. Since September 9, 2020, when it was certain that it will be broadcast on Netflix, the world’s most active platform, it has received reactions from many parts of the world with its content and different topics.

So, What’s the Subject of Cuties that Got so Much Reaction?

The main reason for the hard accusations on the film is because its subject is based on small children. It became the target of criticism because of the rumours that the film tended to normalize pedophilia.

According to the director, the film is about an 11-year-old girl named Amy who was a fan of a twerk dance group. She wants to join the group and be like them. For the sake of it, she defies against the Muslim and Senegalese traditions of her family. The children in this group are pictured as behaving and looking much more mature than they normally should be. Especially the clothes, dances, make-up used in the movie and children’s attitudes and even the poster of the movie was criticized for these reasons.

The director constantly defends her film saying that it highlights many different problems of society and the hard circumstances the children face every day. The main aim of the film is to be a pioneer to make a social change.

Here’s what she said:

“It’s because I saw so many things and so many issues around me lived by young girls, that I decided to make this film and sound an alarm and say, ‘We need to protect our children. It’s bold, its feminist, but it’s so important and necessary to create debate and try to find solutions, for me as an artist, for politicians and parents. It’s a real issue.”

She added:

“The controversy started with that artwork… The most important [thing] is to watch the film and understand we have the same fight.”

The director also said that it is very important to show the Black and brown people on the big screen in the way that Cuties do. She explained:

“It’s important to see someone like you on the screen and to grow up with a lot of possibilities. So, of course, diversity and inclusion have to be the keys to progress in our cinema.”

After all the arguments and statements, Netflix apologizes to the director. While Netflix describes the film as ‘an award-winning movie and a powerful story about the pressure faced by young girls on social media and more generally in the growing society,’ it continues to receive multiple calls to take the movie off its platform. People are canceling their subscriptions and they start petitions for the removal of the film.

Click here for the source of the statement.