Desert Flower chronicles the true story of Waris Dirie, a nomad who flees from the deserts of Somalia to London and later becomes an American supermodel. It is a film that inspires and shows the sacrifice that is possible in humanity but also the invisible strings attached to any good deed.
While in London, Waris — played by Ethiopian actress and supermodel Liya Kebede (The Good Shepherd, Lord of War) — receives help from four white strangers who claim to be making a better life for her. But their help is far from what one would call a “noble sacrifice.”
The photographer (Timothy Spall) and agent (Juliet Stevenson) see Waris’s beauty as dollar signs — a stream of cash flowing into their wallets once she books a few casting calls and makes herself a household name in the fashion industry. Even the janitor (Craig Parkinson) who makes the noblest gesture ultimately shows he has an ulterior motive.
In one scene, the photographer can’t get the shot he wants from Waris. So he goes to the extreme to elicit melancholy. He says: “So, Waris, do you think about home a lot? Your mama died? Hmmm? Brothers and sisters?” With just a mention, her eyes tear up; he’s effectively drawn out emotion and sadness to get that perfect shot. And why shouldn’t he? He discovered her. He completely changed her life.
But for Waris, the day that changed her life wasn’t the day she was discovered. In fact, that day had nothing to do with these white strangers. It happened when she was just three years old — when she underwent female circumcision.
Desert Flower is definitely a message movie, but not overly so. The musical score sets the emotional tone for a film that is hopeful yet unsettling. And Liya Kebede’s portrayal of Dirie is as flawless as her runway walk.
Written and directed by German filmmaker Sherry Horman, Desert Flower is a rags-to-riches story but not in the way one would traditionally imagine. For Waris, the rags of a lost femininity are replaced by the riches of discovering and embracing her womanhood. And the four white strangers… in Waris’s version of her life story, they are left on the cutting room floor.
Genres: Biography | Drama
Director: Sherry Horman
Release Date: 18 March 2011 (USA)
Runtime: 124 min
Cast: Liya Kebede, Sally Hawkins, Craig Parkinson, Timothy Spall, Anthony Mackie
Oh, this girl is so pretty! oh ma gad! She is so pretty. I should stop otherwise I’ll embarrass myself.
Don’t be embarrassed, i hear you! I also have a crash on her and to see that she can act, lord help me. And I really thought the movie was made well. All the shots were beautiful to watch and all that. I have so much praise for the crew.
Yeah! She’s pretty. I thought the movie was good. My understanding here though is that, it is still one more example of the many movies white directors like to make to coax more sympathizers and in that way win fans all over. The book was great and I think she acted pretty well but I have a hard time watching these kinds of movies where white people are always trying to come to the aid of desperate black folks!
It kind of reminds me of a lot of those white directed black movies. You know they are going to show the bad spots in Africa. The worst in fact. And show the most humane and most beautiful of the West. it’s a sensitization galore. It makes them feel better. But that’s. Only because, I think for us it re-awakens in us the need to do something about out culture, our countries and our people.
Thanks for posting more black movies that we otherwise wouldn’t care to watch. I think you guys are doing pretty good so far. Good entertainment. Once you get the African movie fans coming too it will be fan. They like to talk.
The trailer looks very good. I shd really check it out.
This movie is a little unsettling. Female circumcision is something that has to stop. What I don’t particularly understand is that, whenever there are certain unacceptable practices in Africa, people elsewhere paint a brutal picture of it. I have had the occasion to observe some procedures in certain villages in Northern Ghana, Nigeria and Burkina Faso. It wasn’t as dirty and ill conceived as this movie portrays it to be. We need to understand that the practice has to stop. But calling it Female Genital Mutilation in Africa but Female Circumcision elsewhere is a bad rep. That has to stop too.