The film Cuties known as Mignonnes in French that was released on the international platform Netflix on September 9 is facing the wrath of netizens who have termed the movie 'child porn' and are trending #CancelNetflix. The movie's poster that released earlier too was criticized, but Netflix decided not to do anything about it. Here is why the movie Cuties is under fire from netizens.
Cuties is a story of an eleven-year-old girl who rebels against her conservative family's traditions when she becomes fascinated with a free-spirited dance crew, reads the description of the movie on Netflix. It is the debut movie of French-Senegalese filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré.
Is there a problem with the movie or the way it was advertised? Perhaps the second reason stands out because the movie did not meet any criticism when it was released and screened at Sundance Film Festival in January or when it was released in France in August.
Movie VS Netflix Promotion Strategy
The movie faced initial criticism when Netflix released the poster of the movie in August. The poster showed four scantily clad young girls striking suggestive dance poses. Soon the poster was termed as promoting pedophilia. Netizens started signing petitions asking Netflix not to release the movie.
But the movie released in France on August 19 and did not face criticism. Even the poster that was released in January showed four young girls gleefully swinging their shopping bags as they walked down a street. Prior to its theatrical release, the movie was premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and Doucouré won the Directing Award.
The promotional posters and trailers cut for Netflix were much different from how the movie was promoted in France. Even the director of the movie Doucouré had said that that the co-CEO of Netflix contacted her over the phone and apologized for the poster release after it received negative feedback and reviews from the public on social media platforms.
Netizens See Red Over Cuties
After the release, Libération described the film as "endearing but too demonstrative. The film remains on the threshold of the discomfort." In fact, Cuties is the first film to be banned in Turkey in a video streaming platform by the Radio and Television Supreme Council.
The film stars Fathia Youssouf, Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas and Maïmouna Gueye in the lead roles. Along with growing children caught between traditional values and pop culture, the movie also talks about the hypersexualization of pre-adolescent girls.
Some of the comments by Netflix include: "This is so disgusting, how you can use little girls to dance this way, to dress them like this exploring "their feminine sensuality" at 11 years old... really? pedophiles must be so happy with this shit." A number of people took to Twitter to announce that they have canceled their Netflix subscription.
