2020 was supposed to be a good year for at least one person - for example, for French director Maimoune Doucoure, who had just shot her feature film debut and won an award for it at the Sundance Festival. The film Mignonnes (literally "Cute") is imbued with the personal experience of the director herself, who was born into a family of Senegalese immigrants, and for a long time could not figure out who exactly she wanted to be - a progressive Frenchwoman or a conservative Senegalese.
Her first feature film tells about the difficult growing up of girls who are lost somewhere in the abyss between two radically different worlds. On the one hand, there are the unshakeable beliefs of permanently sullen parents who impose their strict rules and expect perfect conformity. On the other hand, there are glossy magazines, influencers with silicone figures and provocative clips in which the naked female body is turned into a commodity.
The main character of "The Darlings" is an eleven-year-old girl, the daughter of Senegalese immigrants, who is torn between two patterns of behavior. She can be a "decent" girl, as her family demands, or imitate her new friends - freedom-loving and noisy girls who twerk in shiny costumes after school, although they themselves do not fully understand what is so "more adult" about it. Anyway, the protagonist's path promises to be difficult and full of contradictions, which Dukur focuses on. The bold approach to such complex topics has made the film one of the most interesting discoveries of the current Sundance. So, the picture can hardly be called a breakthrough hit, and there were complaints about it (as with any debut), but critics praised the "Sweet Ones" for their emotionality, sincerity, straightforwardness and sometimes shocking humor.
"Cute" would probably have remained a typical festival film - one of those works with several dozen positive reviews, but which the mass audience will never hear about. Most likely, Dukur could gradually conquer the world of cinema, hone her talent and eventually reach a wider audience. But Netflix decided once again to prove to someone that it is not only a platform with comedies, dark sensational documentaries about bloody murders and teen series, but also a streaming service for fans of "real" cinema. Therefore, the company bought the rights to show the European drama and began actively promoting it on its social networks. However, the marketing strategy turned out to be, say, strange - Netflix began promoting a tape that criticizes the sexualization of children with the help of a provocative poster in which the main eleven-year-old heroines of the film pose in crop tops and miniskirts. 1xBet Loyalty Bonus: Get up to 100 Free Spins when you regularly deposit at 1xBet, plus get a 50% deposit bonus on your 10th deposit. With our exclusive 1xbet promo code you get to claim a welcome bonus of up to ₹33,000. This offer is only available for registered 1xBet . Register on platform: New users can receive a welcome bonus voucher during registration.