The Body Beautiful

An autobiographical, pseudo-documentary with re-enactments about director Ngozi Onwurah and her mother, Madge. The film is told from the perspective of Madge, and it examines her feelings about her own mastectomy and her feelings of inadequacy over her own body while at the same time exploring Ngozi's relationship with her mother. Examining such issues and body image (through Ngozi's mother's feelings about her own body and through Ngozi's job as a model) and racial identity (Ngozi was born to a Caucasian mother and African-American father), I thought it was a very sweet, beautiful film about the bond between a mother and her daughter as well as an examination of what it means to truly be a woman.