Friday 18 March 2011

‘Desert Flower’ Tells Story of Waris Dirie

National Geographic Entertainment
Liya Kebede, left, and Sally Hawkins in “Desert Flower.”


Desert Flower,” a well-made film that depicts the remarkable life of the model Waris Dirie, manages to be both a classic feel-good story and about as far from a feel-good story as you can get.
Ms. Dirie escaped an impoverished childhood in Somalia and, largely through serendipity, became a sought-after model. Eventually, in a magazine interview, she told of being forced to undergo ritual female circumcision as a young girl, a brutal process also known, more accurately, as female genital mutilation. She became a United Nations spokeswoman against the practice.
Liya Kebede, herself a model, gives a credible performance as Ms. Dirie, who fled her family at 13 to avoid a forced marriage and ended up in London. Sally Hawkins is a treat as the salesclerk who reluctantly befriends her there, and Timothy Spall provides his usual quirkiness as the photographer who discovers her scrubbing floors in a humble restaurant.
The film, based on Ms. Dirie’s memoir of the same title, is heartening both for Ms. Dirie’s rise-and-overcome tale and for the reminder that a helping hand from a stranger can still occasionally be found in this unkind world. But, of course, it’s also disheartening because of what was done to Ms. Dirie, a moment revisited in a hard-to-watch flashback. The film makes bluntly clear that this is a trauma that lasts a lifetime.
“Desert Flower” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) for sexual situations and the scenes related to genital mutilation.
 DESERT FLOWER
Opens on Friday in Manhattan.
Directed by Sherry Hormann; written by Ms. Hormann, based on the book by Waris Dirie and Cathleen Miller; director of photography, Ken Kelsch; edited by Clara Fabry; music by Martin Todsharow; production design by Jamie Leonard; costumes by Gabriele Binder; produced by Peter Herrmann; released by National Geographic Entertainment. In English and Somali, with English subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 4 minutes.
WITH: Liya Kebede (Waris Dirie), Sally Hawkins (Marilyn), Timothy Spall (Donaldson), Juliet Stevenson (Lucinda), Craig Parkinson (Neil), Anthony Mackie (Harold), Meera Syal (Pushpa Patel) and Soraya Omar-Scego (Young Waris).

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