“Cuties” is about a young girl's quest to join a dance gang. It has generated a row that raises a thorny question
11-year-old girl starting at a new school, Amy just wants to fit in. The conservative Muslim teachings of her Senegalese mother’s world impose a creed ofof Paris, Amy is dazzled by a different universe. She glimpses Angelica , dressed in a crop top and practising hip-swivelling dance moves as her washing spins.
“Mignonnes” is about Amy’s painful quest to join Angelica’s dance gang. It is a powerful, disturbing story of belonging, female liberty, hysterical giggling and conflicting cultures, but also of the hyper-sexualisation of pre-teens. Inspired by much-“liked” video clips on social media, the pre-adolescent Amy naively urges the girls into ever-more explicit choreography.
Others have decided to judge, however. A low-grossing independent movie in French would ordinarily go unnoticed in America. But Netflix, which acquired the American distribution rights, has provoked a backlash. Ted Cruz, a Republican senator, wrote to the attorney-general asking him to determine whether the film “violated any federal laws against the production and distribution of child pornography”. A “cancel Netflix” petition, backed by QAnon conspiracists, is circulating online.
Netflix has apologised for the “inappropriate artwork” it initially used. It was far from the film’s French publicity shot, which showed the girls in a carefree moment of sorority. Yet the row raises a thorny question: when does a film about a troubling phenomenon become complicit in what it seeks to condemn? During dance scenes, the camera lingers uncomfortably on the children’s bodies in ways that shock and haunt the viewer.
This article appeared in the Books & arts section of the print edition under the headline "The dancer and the dance"
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