The french film Cuties, directed by Maïmouna Doucouré, started streaming on Netflix on 9 September. Despite being critically acclaimed and winning the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award at Sundance Film Festival 2020, the film has found itself embroiled in a recent controversy with hashtags like #CancelNetflix trending on social media. Cuties is the story of an 11-year-old Senegalese Muslim girl Amy living in Paris. Amy finds herself deeply fascinated by her neighbour Angelica’s dance group called ‘Cuties.’ Angelica’s twerking stands in stark contrast to Amy’s relatively disciplined and traditional upbringing and motivates Amy to protest against her family and join Cuties. According to the makers of the film, Cuties is meant to spark conversations around the sexualisation of underage girls.
“Cuties is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children,” a Netflix spokesperson said. “It’s an award-winning film and a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up — and we’d encourage anyone who cares about these important issues to watch the movie.” Cuties’ message can get lost in the sea of backlash, online rage, and conspiracy theories that have found themselves attached to the film, but Doucouré wanted to tell a story that was close to her own life.
