This September, DocsBarcelona is bringing the effects of FGM to the big screen with ‘Womanhood’
Kenian filmmaker Beryl Magoko shares the physical and emotional trauma African women go through as a result of Female Genital Mutilation.
Filmmaker Beryl Magoko, born in Kenya and living in Germany, is bringing something to the big screen that is a great unknown for most of the population: What happens after FGM? We’ll find out in Womanhood, the DocsBarcelona documentary of the month for September.
When she was 10 years old, Magoko thought all girls had to be circumcised by going through Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). She had been told it was a rite of passage from childhood to womanhood and that it was essential to be accepted by her community. They didn’t tell her about the physical and emotional suffering she would go through, not only then but in the future, too.
Now she has found out it is possible to have reconstructive surgery, giving her back what she lost, but she’s unsure whether it can really help. In Womanhood, her diploma film from 2018, she shares her private experiences with other victims of FGM. She also breaks the silence with her mother, bringing to light an issue that is rarely spoken about in the mainstream media.
Like her first film The cut (2012), Womanhood has won many awards. These include the Leipzig Audience Award, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam Award for Best Student Documentary, the Néstor Almendros Award at the Human Rights Film Festival in the United States, and the DocsBarcelona New Talent Award.
In Barcelona, it will be screening on 5 September at Cinemes Girona, at 7:30 pm; on 16 September at Teatre de Sarrià, at 8:30 pm; on 17 September at Casa Elizalde, at 7 pm; on 25 September at the Agustí Centelles library in the Eixample Esquerra, at 7 pm; on 26 September at the Fort Pienc Civic Centre, at 7:30; and, finally, on 29 September at Teatre de Sarrià again, at 8:30 pm. More information is available on the DocsBarcelona website.