Desert Flower

The film ‘Desert Flower’ told the story of Waris Dirie, a somali model, author,

actress and a social activist. Waris undergo female circumcision/female genital

mutilation, her experiences with this and her struggles before she came as fashion

model is the focus of the film. The film didn’t made her story a cliche type of film, instead

it made her story inspiring and full of pure emotions that it can move people who would

watch it. The film made me realize that we should be more open minded to the things

that is not normal according to ourselves. The film became a window for me to

understand the kinds of things that I didn’t really understood before.

Focusing on Self-awareness, the movie showed that Waris became aware that

things that seem to be normal for her isn’t normal to the general public. She started

becoming aware when she saw Marilyn having a sexual intercourse with someone.

When Waris saw what is happening, she is surprised, because what she knows is that a

woman is only allowed to do these kinds of things if she is already married. She also

understood when she and Marilyn saw each other’s genital that it is not normal to be

“cut” or being circumcised as a female. She and Marilyn went to the hospital after

talking about what happened to her. The somali nurse, that interpreted what the doctor

said about what the procedure will be, said instead things to let Waris feel bad. Waris

didn’t proceed into doing the procedure but after some thinking and when she was

brought to the hospital, she eventually proceeded into undergoing through the

procedure.

Focusing on the development stages, the movie showed how Waris developed a

trauma when she was cut at age 3. She started to feel that their tradition is a bit strange,

therefore when she was sold to be wed to an old man, she went to her grandmother.

When she was sent to london to serve as a maid to the somali ambassador, she was

living apart from the general society. As a result to her living apart from society, she had

not developed proper social norms in london and when she first met Marilyn, Marilyn

thought that she is a bit weird from observing her actions.She slowly developed proper

norms when she started living with Marilyn. When she started to become a model she

started to see and understand on how the world works. She even came to a point where

she married Neil just to be have a working visa. At the latter part of the film, when she

did a speech at the UN, I can truly say that she developed into a wonderful and inspiring

human being.

In relating her to the core values of FEU, I can say that the movie showed

Fortitude by letting us see how strong of a woman Waris is, she overcame the struggles

in her life that not a lot of people can handle, she standed strong till the end. The movie

showed us excellence by how wonderful the movie gave us a compelling interpretation

of Dirie’s life. The actors and actresses that was casted are great and Liya Kebede’s

performance was impeccable, and the cinematography was great. The

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