Cuties Movie Storyline. Amy, an 11-year-old girl from Senegal, lives with her mother Mariam and two younger brothers, one of them named Ishmael, in an apartment in one of Paris’s poorest neighbourhoods. She helplessly witnesses her mother suffer as her polygynous husband prepares to return with a second wife. She is also bored with Islamic culture that her aunt seeks to impress on her. Amy is fascinated by her disobedient neighbour Angelica’s pre-teen twerking clique, the Cuties, which is in stark contrast to Mariam’s Muslim customs.
They do not hesitate to adopt revealing outfits in the image of their older rivals. Encouraged by the quest for online recognition, Amy decides to incorporate sexually suggestive dance moves into the choreography. Following a humiliation at school where she gets pantsed, Amy steals her uncle’s phone and sends a photo of her vulva online to a social network, causing her to be ostracised. The Cuties also banned her from performing with them at a dance contest, and replaced her with former member Yasmine. Her mother also scolds her.
While her father’s wedding day corresponds the finale at the Parc de la Villette, she is determined to dance with them, and sneaks out of the house. She pushes Yasmine into a canal, so the Cuties have no choice but to allow her to dance with them. The highly suggestive dance routine shocks the audience. Suddenly thinking about her mother during the routine, Amy bursts into tears and leaves before their performance ends.
Upon her return, she runs into her aunt who blames her for her outfit and recent attitude. Amy’s mother intervenes by telling her to leave her daughter alone and then hugs her to reassure her. Amy implores her mother to allow Amy to not attend the wedding, in order to demonstrate her disapproval. Amy’s mother permits her not to go, but states that she herself must go to fulfill her duty as a wife. In the end, Amy abandons both the traditional wedding dress and her sexy dancer’s outfit, living a normal youth lifestyle.
Cuties (French: Mignonnes) is a 2020 French coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Maïmouna Doucouré in her feature directorial debut. The film stars Fathia Youssouf, Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas and Maïmouna Gueye. The plot revolves around Amy (Youssouf), a Senegalese-French girl with a traditional Muslim upbringing who is caught between traditional values and Internet culture when she joins a twerking dance crew.
The filmmakers claimed that it is intended to criticise the hypersexualisation of pre-adolescent girls. Doucouré wrote the script using inspirations from an inappropriate talent show she happened to walk across one day, as well as her experience as a Senegalese-French person. Casting took six months, and principal photography took three months, with a psychologist assisting the child actresses throughout.
The film premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on 23 January, where Doucouré won the Directing Award. Later, Youssouf won the César Award for Most Promising Actress. It was released in France on 19 August 2020 by BAC Films and internationally on 9 September 2020 on Netflix.
While receiving generally positive reviews from critics for its ambition and acting, Cuties became a subject of controversy, starting from Netflix’s initial promotional poster that was widely considered inappropriate. The film received overwhelming criticism following its release on Netflix and cases of review bombs and subscription cancellations surged, popularised by the hashtag #CancelNetflix. Netflix has defended the film.
Cuties (2020)
Directed by: Maïmouna Doucouré
Starring: Fathia Youssouf, Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas, Maïmouna Gueye, Myriam Hamma, Mbissine Therese Diop, Demba Diaw, Mamadou Samaké
Screenplay by: Maïmouna Doucouré
Production Design by: Julie Wassef
Cinematography by: Yann Maritaud
Film Editing by: Mathilde Van de Moortel, Stéphane Mazalaigue
Costume Design by: Valérie Ranchoux
Music by: Niko Noki
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: BAC Films, Netflix
Release Date: January 23, 2020 (Sundance), August 17, 2020 (France), September 9, 2020 (United States)
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