DESERT FLOWER
UK/Germany, 2009, 120 minutes, Colour.
Liya Kebede, Sally Hawkins, Craig Parkinson, Meera Syal, Anthony Mackie, Juliet Stevenson, Timothy Spall, Soraya Omar- Scego.
Directed by Sherry Horman.
Desert Flower is the Somali meaning of the name of Walis.
This film is based on the autobiography of a young girl from the deserts of Somalia who walked to Mogadishu to escape from her home and to be with her grandmother, who worked in the Somali embassy in London, lived in the UK as an illegal, holding on to her Muslim traditions, who worked in a burger cafe and became a top model with a world reputation. Rags to riches stories don’t come more amazing than this.
But, while that is one of the main themes of the film, it is not the only one. Waris Dirie underwent the tradition of circumcision at the age of three, before she was betrothed to an elder as his fourth wife. The reality of female genital circumcision may not be familiar to many in the west as it was not to Waris’ friend in London, Marilyn. This enables the screenwriters to communicate the pain and the horror of this kind of mutilation. Which means that the other main theme of the film is the campaign to stop this procedure. When Waris becomes a successful model and is to be interviewed by a top magazine about the day that changed her life, she opted to tell her story of the mutilation day. She then went on to address the United Nations and became a spokesperson on the issue for the UN.
Actually, the two strands sit uncomfortably together in this film. We move suddenly from one to the other, jolting us from the affluent and chic world of modelling back to the desert and the poverty.
It is difficult to say why the film does not have as much impact as might have been expected. Perhaps it is its aim to reach a wide audience unfamiliar with this material, so it takes the method of straightforward storytelling, the only artistic artifice being the juxtaposing of the two strands, the narrative and the contrasting flashbacks. It is also very earnest in its tone – some sensitive (over-sensitive) comments accuse the film of being patronising to its central character and the themes, of being condescending. However, others comment that the film is a reasonable adaptation of the autobiography, expressing Waris’s view of what happened to her. The film does become rather didactic at the end with Waris’s address to the UN, but it does bring home her experience and the consequences and the need for countries to prohibit circumcision (which a final note says has happened while still reminding audiences that 6000 girls are circumcised every day).
Ethiopian born Liya Kebede has a challenge to portray Waris from being a very reserved and heavily clad young woman to a confident woman who can strut the catwalks and be photographed nude. The British cast is quite exuberant. But that is the word often associated with Sally Hawkins. She plays Waris’s room-mate, Marilyn – exuberantly. Timothy Spall is clearly enjoying himself as the photographer who discovered Waris as she was mopping the burger cafe floor in Notting Hill. Juliet Stevenson exudes drama queen as the dominating head of the modelling agency.
On the whole this is a film that women will relate to much more intimately than a male audience will, from the ugliness of the mutilation to the glamour of fashion. Empathetic men will try to respond to the serious themes and not indulge in the ogling that the fashion and photography sessions are geared to excite.
For an audience who would prefer a more sobering film on female circumcision, Ousmane Sembene’s 2004 Moolaade is the film to watch.
1. The biography of Waris? The adaptation of her autobiography for the screen? Life, vocation, mission?
2. The film based on a true story, the background in Somalia, in the United Kingdom, internationally, New York, the United Nations?
3. The Djibouti locations for Somalia? The scenes in the desert, the dunes? The villages? Mogadishu, poverty, the city streets? The contrast with London, the world of the embassy, poverty on the streets, the shops in Oxford Street, flats, the burger café in Notting Hill, the studios and agency? Airports and government offices? The catwalks of the world? New York City, streets and apartments? The United Nations building, (**?hall, Paul?) ? An atmosphere of reality – with the touch of the surreal?
4. The film as a fairy tale, the rags-to-riches story, how credible? Yet facts?
5. Waris as a little girl, working with her brother, in the desert, the flocks, her place in the family? The transition to London, the need of help after the embassy closed? The encounter with Marylin in the store, the owner of the apartments, the shower scene, her head-to-ankles clothes, changing, the sleepover in the apartment? The credibility of this transition?
6. The insertion of the flashbacks, to Waris as a girl, to the desert and her work, to her mother? Being betrothed? The elderly husband? The situation of circumcision, mutilation, the mother taking her to the old woman, the botched operation, the cutting and the sewing? The effect? Her pain throughout her life? Her leaving her mother, finding her grandmother? The cumulative effect of these flashbacks on Waris’s memory? On the audience’s understanding of her?
7. Her mother, Waris’s memories, her mother’s own marriage and being exiled to the desert, resentment? Waris having to rethink her attitude towards her mother?
8. The reality of female circumcision, genital mutilation? The facts, Africa, the statistics, the beliefs in Africa, the men’s attitudes, the women? The movie judgment of this practice? Waris going to hospital, her pain, the doctor and his offering the operation, the translator from Somalia and his stern words, not translating the doctor’s words but threatening Waris? Her later return, having the operation?
9. Marylin as a character, Sally Hawkins’ style, in the shop, flustered, seeing Waris, pursuing her, the conflict, Waris following her in the street, her exasperation, helping her? The discussions with the manager of the apartments? Waris calling her ‘mother’? Her softening? Marylin and her wanting to be a dancer, all the auditions, failing, seeing her at an audition? The letter of rejection, her anger, tearing it up? Her decision to help Waris? The contact with the burger café in Notting Hill? Her being taken up by Terry Donaldson? Her joy for Waris, taking her to the hospital with her pain, hearing the story of the mutilation (and the audience hearing it through Marylin’s sensibility)? Marylin and her own behaviour, the dances, the sexual encounters, Waris’s shock? An ordinary London woman?
10. Neil, the background of his degree, working in the apartment block, maintenance? Friendship with Marylin? The immediate attraction to Waris? His attention, conversations, meals, his being a cook? Helping, the importance of the visa, his offering to marry her, the ceremony, Waris’s resistance to him, his being hurt, humiliated?
11. Pushpa Patel and her role in the apartment block, friendly, arranging for the visas?
12. Terry Donaldson, reading in the café, attracted towards Waris, her mopping the floors, his being a celebrity photographer, the card, the offer of sessions, Waris and her hesitation and awkwardness, the camera flash, her becoming used to these, Donaldson eliciting the response from her? The fashion shoots? The nude shoots? The effect on her? Donaldson’s reputation and opening doors for her and her success?
13. Lucinda, imperious, in herself, meeting Waris, her manner of speaking, the contracts, the concern about money, Waris’s reaction to her? The discovery of the visa situation? Her being upset, dealing with Pushpa Patel? With the other means of getting forged passports? The sharpness of her dialogue? Travelling with the women, bossing them about, forbidding drugs etc?
14. Waris and the change, her poise, learning English, the photo shoots, the resistance, the deals? Meeting the American at the dance, hoping to meet him in New York?
15. Harold Jackson, at the dance in England, the meeting, his kindness? The effect on Waris, wanting to see him in New York? Going to the apartment, her hurriedly leaving? His seeing the magazine? Going to the UN?
16. The interview with the magazine editor, the important day in her life, her reluctance to tell the story, her decision to tell her life story, the flashbacks, the genital mutilation and its effect? The cover, the article?
17. Waris becoming an ambassador to the United Nations, her speech, the delegates listening? Her statements about mutilation?
18. The statistics about Africa at the end, Waris’s own career, her being an ambassador and campaigning on the issue of circumcision?
