Moolaadé
New Yorker Films | Release Date: October 15, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
91
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New York TimesDana Stevens
To skip Moolaade would be to miss an opportunity to experience the embracing, affirming, world-changing potential of humanist cinema at its finest. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The result: This great work of art has the potential to change the world. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
This sometimes harrowing, often delightful drama stands with his (Sembène) most compassionate, colorful, and artfully filmed works. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A beautiful picture with a great heart, a classic-to-be with a common touch. Read full review
100
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Moolaade, in short, is a movie to rock the soul. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
This is a masterwork by Ousmane Sembene, the 81-year-old father of African cinema and one of Senegal's greatest novelists. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This was for me the best film at Cannes 2004, a story vibrating with urgency and life. It makes a powerful statement and at the same time contains humor, charm and astonishing visual beauty. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy Burr
It's worth stressing how deeply pleasurable Moolaad is to watch. Read full review
100
Dallas ObserverMelissa Levine
It's not easy to pull off a good morality tale. That's why Moolaad, the new film from 81-year-old Senegalese writer-director Ousmane Sembene, feels like such an exceptional success. Its moral center is painfully clear, but so is its humanity. Read full review
100
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
As empowering and triumphant a film as you'll see this or any year. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Once in a rare while a film comes along that is boldly original, communicates an important idea in an elegantly simple fashion and happens to be highly entertaining. Such is the case with Moolaadé. Read full review
90
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Sembène's love of his people and his commitment to the richness that underlies the poverty of their condition have always made his films gems of truth, as they do once again here. Read full review
90
VarietyScott Foundas
This richly textured parable feels every inch the work of a master. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
This has to be the most richly entertaining movie anyone has ever made on the subject of female genital mutilation. Read full review
90
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Quite possibly the most buoyant, exuberant film ever made on such an unpleasant topic. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
There's such a rich sense of the fullness of life in Moolaadé that it sustains those passages that are truly and necessarily harrowing. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Fatoumata Coulibaly's peformance is striking. She plays her character with a mixture of determination and compassion. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
It's a deceptively simple tale that tackles, serenely and with surprising humor, issues of gender, power, custom and change. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Brilliantly colored and passionately acted, Moolaade teems with incidents, personalities and drama and is never less than vivid. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
A marvelously entertaining, deeply moving treatment of a highly controversial practice: female genital mutilation. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid Parkinson
Poetic, provocative and unstoppably powerful. But, depressingly, it probably won't change a thing. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
A rousing indictment of a barbaric practice. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleJonathan Curiel
Not always pleasant to watch. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Though Moolaadé doesn't shy away from the task of educating its viewers about the brutality of "purification," it works equally well as a tribute to righteous defiance wherever it surfaces. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
As drama the film mostly serves to illustrate the two sides of this crucial social debate in Africa. Read full review
40
Film ThreatPhil Hall
Achieves the impossible in taking a genuine socio-political tragedy and turning it into an anvil drama which will fray the patience of the most sympathetic audiences. Read full review
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