“Desert Flower” has a compelling story to tell, but, unfortunately, there are a lot of problems with this bio-pic. The film is based on the life of Waris Dirie, an international supermodel who began life as a member of a nomadic tribe in Somalia. As a child, she was circumcised, as is the custom in many African countries. Many girls die during or because of this barbaric mutilation, still widely practiced today although there’s no mention of it in the Koran. It is used to subjugate women and propagated by men who refuse to marry any woman who hasn’t been ‘cut.’ When Waris is sold as a fourth wife to an old man, she leaves, walking hundreds of miles across the desert to seek her grandmother in Mogadishu, who sends her to London to work as a maid for a relative. The film jumps between her experiences as a young girl, what happens in London, what forces her to live on the streets and how she is befriended by a ditzy want-to-be ballerina Marylin (Sally Hawkins). Marylin finds Waris a job mopping floors in a fast food restaurant where she is ‘discovered’ by a fashion photographer Terry Donaldson (Timothy Spall). Through him and a modeling agent named Lucinda (Juliet Stevenson), she rises to the top ranks of modeling. She eventually denounces genital mutilation before the United Nations and becomes its spokeswoman against the practice.
Director Sherry Horman does not shift smoothly from the various parts of the story she is trying tell so the movie lacks an overall cohesion characteristic of today’s movies. And the tone jumps all over the place, comedy here, drama there. Stevenson’s overacting seems to trivialize parts of the story and Horman lingers on several unnecessary modeling sessions. And scenes with a janitor (Craig Parkinson) Waris marries to stay in London borders on soap opera melodrama. There are some good things – everything about Waris before her success feels true. Sally Hawkins and Timothy Spall make their characters plausible and model Liya Kebede is convincing as Waris. Although “Desert Flower” is an uneven film, Waris’s story will keep you involved. 4/3/11
1 comment:
This complex story will break your heart, espeially when they brutilize a little 3 year old girl. Through the barbarism of circumcision Somalis (and others) want to be able to control their women so they can go off and become kidnappers and pirates.... what a country, wow!! They say the practise is waning but there is still 8,000 women per day going through this?? This is a must see.
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