Did you people see the same film I saw?

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It was not long before when I first came to know about circumcision, but it was only for males. The information came along with the news that it has some sort of positive effect. To put my view, I would say it's not so. It was after that came a day when I came across movie Desert Flower. I got to know about the terrible practice of female genital mutilation. Both the sexes miss onto something nature has given them in such practice. What's more evil is there are the cases where subject bleeds to death. It is terrible.Desert flower is a movie of a woman, in Somalia who becomes victim to the practice of FGM. She however changes her fate and becomes a supermodel and even UN special ambassadorAt the end however, we receive data how those practices are made illegal and human beings living in those area are getting together towards a better future.

This film is an emotionally powerful film with memorable scenes that are extremely moving. It has the same elements that most Oscar winning movies have in that you feel real joy and pain. It's a shame this film didn't make more money than it did. It appears that it was basically set aside and not distributed like it should have been.The character development of Waris is spot on. The back story in Africa is also effective in getting a glimpse of the complexity of issues and various injustices a young refugee girl like Waris deals with. The scenes in Africa are also beautiful cinematically.There are a couple technical moments that could have been better that just reflect the budget it had to work with. IE the obvious green screen in front of the United Nations General Assembly and the ads of Waris on the sides of the buildings in Central London.Somalia has faced unspeakable challenges in the last 25 years. The result of this is the suffering of regular people who have been caught in the crossfire. There are countless stories from Somalia that need to be told on the screen to bring awareness to this part of the world.Matt Erickson Poet Nation

A young Somali girl is at the center of this film, based on a real story. Waris, a young shepherdess, lives with her nomad family tending to the herd, camping everywhere in an inhospitable landscape. The family is dominated by a matriarch, as we seldom see the father. Waris, who is a teenager as this tale begins, is horrified when she is sold to an older man with three wives. The only solution is to run away from that situation. The best thing is to find her grandmother in Mogadishu, a trek that will take her days across the arid countryside.In flashbacks we get to know Waris best kept secret. She had the indignity of having been circumcised at the tender age of three by an older woman, who performs the ritual that mutilates women's vaginae, rendering her unable to feel, or have any pleasure during intercourse. In fact, the barbaric act kills a lot young girls who bleed to death by the way they are cut. Through ignorance this practice is done in a lot of countries. Waris is not the only one, but she had the courage to speak publicly about it and create an outrage as she presented her case in the United Nations.Waris Dirie ended up in London as a teenager brought to work at the Somali embassy as a maid. When war broke in her native country, she had to fend for herself. Through a kind soul, who took pity on her, Waris was able to make something out of herself. A lucky break came in the way of a photographer that realized her potential and she rose to the ranks of super model because of her beauty and talent, which in a way, plays as a Cinderella story in comparison to the hard life she endured as a child.Directed by Sherry Horman, the film has two narratives. Waris' life in Africa, and her meteoric ascent into becoming a fashion model. The best part of the film is the first one because it is more realistic, with a clear message about a fact that has been played in the press from time to time, but whose practice continue to maim young females throughout the world by men hating women and subjecting them to a barbaric procedure that kills a large number of young females, as was the case of two of Waris' sisters. The London part of the story is more artificial, when compared with the more real African narrative.Soraya Omar-Scego, the young actress that plays Waris is quite compelling in her determination to leave behind family to look for a better life. Liya Kebede is the adult Waris. A ravishing beauty, no doubt, a successful model herself, she seems credible. Wonderful Sally Hawkins is seen as Marilyn, the English woman who befriended Waris and took her under her wing. Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson, Craig Parkinson, Meera Syal, are seen in supporting roles.

Desert Flower is a weird movie. It is based on the life story of Waris Dirie, a super-model up there with Naomi Campel and Cate Moss. The movie focuses on the time from just before her discovery until her big success, with constant flashbacks of her childhood in Somalia and her way to London. Liya Kebede plays a wonderful Waris Dirie, very lovely and full of surprise and fear of the daily life we all take for granted, while at the same time showing great bravery and a strong will to fight for a better life. The rest of the cast is medium at best, a positive exception only the character of Terence Donovan, the photographer. The director did not resist the temptation to give Waris a sort of "funny sidekick-friend" as well as the stereotypical I-Jumped-Out-Of-"The Devil Wears Prada"-Movie - manager, to add some slapstick-touch, which was totally unnecessary. The movie does not leave anyone untouched though, it has some heartwarming and touching as well as some very cruel and disturbing passages. It is funny and sweet when Waris is struggling with the British everyday life, making friends, and so on. It is hard to bear when you are faced with drastic pictures of a 3 year old girl being circumcised, with a 19-year old woman suffering still from this cruel and brutal violation, and with the fact that a whole tradition tries to justify this. And that is the main weak point of the movie. The changes from the funny, light and sweet scenes to the brutal and cruel ones come without warning. The editor or director does not give you the time to set your mind to that kind of situation, and after a hefty scene they just switch back to the light comedy-part as if nothing happens. While I understand the intention, for me as a viewer I could not enjoy the funny parts - which were never the less intended to entertain the audience. I recommend this movie if you can handle the topic, but do not look for a entertaining biopic with some depth. It has entertainment, it has depth, but it tries to deliver both but never brings it home all the way in the one or the other topic.