FILM ANALYSIS “THE FLOWER OF THE DESERT”

Subject: Social and ecological responsibility

Presented by: Luz Janneth Parra Ayala

Systems engineering group 215 2BN

Summary technical sheet of the film “Desert Flower”:

 Original title: Desert flower

 Country: United Kingdom , Germany , Austria .
 Year 2009 .
 Genre: drama .
 Duration: 120 minutes.
 Director: Sherry Hormann
 Producer: Peter Herrmann
 Lead Actress: Liya Kebede
 Awards: Audience Award for Best European Film at the 2009 San Sebastián
Festival .

Synopsis: The Flower of the Desert is a film based on the autobiographical novel by the
model, writer and activist against female genital mutilation Waris Dirie.

The plot of the film takes place in various settings in Somalia, England and the United
States where the protagonist, who has the original name of the true protagonist of the
story, is a Somali girl who runs away from her home for not accepting a forced
marriage. to which her family wants to force her. She first arrives in the capital city of
Somalia and then moves to England to work as a domestic worker. She spends a few
years there and when the war breaks out in Somalia, her employers return to that
country, so Waris is left jobless and helpless in a country where she is a stranger. After
meeting the woman who will become her best friend, she gets a job in a cafe, where she
is discovered by one of the best photographers in England, who turns her into a top
model. Waris begins to be on the cover of the most famous fashion magazines in the
world, in addition to participating in the most sought-after catwalks, and her life, her
story, begin to be on the lips of many media outlets. It is at that point, where the girl
asks a journalist not to talk more about the nomadic girl from the Somali desert who
became a top model, but to talk about the girl who at three years of age was barbarously
motilated on her genitals. attending to a tradition that has been in their culture for more
than 3,000 years.
Analysis of the film: “The Flower of the Desert” allows us to immerse ourselves a little
in the world of a Somali girl who, as a result of her culture and the idiosyncrasies of her
people, is forced to experience physical and psychological torture that leads her to take
the decision to flee regardless of the harsh conditions he will have to go through to live
in a first world country where his life will change significantly thanks to his beautiful
appearance.

The film pans between two culturally, economically and physically quite opposite
worlds: On the one hand we find Somalia, a country located on the African continent
that has a fairly large desert surface, where natural resources are scarce, especially first-
class ones. necessity like water, and economic activities are not many or well-paid, so
its people work not to have money, possess goods and/or indulge in luxuries; He does it
to survive; and on the other hand we find England, a country of the so-called “first
world”, a large island on the European continent, economically quite prosperous where
the majority of its citizens have a good economic income and have everything necessary
to live well. , not to survive. But in addition to the marked differences just mentioned,
there is an even larger gap at a religious and cultural level. In Somalia, the Islamic
religion predominates, which contemplates great differences in the practice of “correct”
behavior that men and women should show, and the latter have many more restrictions
ranging from the way they dress, to the freedom to choose their clothing. husband and
reaching aberrant things like the one that stands out the most and the main reason for
making the film, which is: genital mutilation, a practice that consists of cutting off the
clitoris and cutting off the genitals of women at an early age, without any type of
asepsis and with the belief that only if this practice is carried out is the woman a pure
woman.

In England, on the other hand, the predominant religion is Catholicism and, secondarily,
Protestantism, but both religions have much fewer restrictions than Islam and culturally,
after waging great struggles that took place worldwide several years ago, the English
women have a much more liberated lifestyle, with many more opportunities to enjoy
things and choose what they want in their lives, than women from Somalia and other
countries that have the same religion and/or similar cultures.

Thousands of women around the world suffer all types of abuse and many daily, like the
protagonist of the story, are mutilated in their genitals causing a large percentage of
them to die from infection and/or bleed to death, others are left with unbearable
abdominal pain during their entire lives, in addition to being left with psychological
trauma and some dying while having a child.

Waris, the protagonist of the story, lived through very difficult times, but she was lucky
and managed to have surgery and access a much better quality of life than the majority
of her compatriots, and by managing to attract the attention of influential media thanks
Due to her fame and history, she managed to let the rest of the world know about this
practice that filled her with disgrace for years and also made organizations like the UN
begin to intervene in some of the countries where female excision was practiced,
achieving its elimination. of the same from the legislation of those countries and making
a large part of the world turn its eyes to this problem and leave indifference to one of the
various practices that go against human rights and put people's lives at risk. . At the end
of the film, the protagonist goes up to a stand to talk about her experience and, in
general, about the consequences of female circumcision and in other words she
maintains that it is a practice that is detrimental to the lives of women, who are the
backbone of backbone of their culture. That phrase makes us think about the meaning of
fighting for a cause like the one she promotes, because by comparing women to the
spine, that is, to the axis of the body, it suggests that women and their function within
society is the axis that supports it and if that axis is not cared for, it is not protected, it is
not allowed integrity and quality of life, society falters, something that happens a lot in
African society and countries of the Islamic religion, reflected in the quality of life of its
people.