Turkey Scores Win Against Netflix On Cuties Release

Cuties, the French film which has been in the media for all the wrong reasons, has hit another road block. The Maïmouna Doucouré first time directed film has been ordered to be removed from theaters in Turkey by their Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) as it might lead to potential child exploitation. Netflix is considering RTUK’s demand and for the time being has delayed the September 9th launch of the film in the country.

Cuties is a film follows a 11-year old Muslim girl who comes from a conservative Senegalese family of immigrants in France. She starts to rebel against her conservative family’s traditions when she becomes fascinated with a free-spirited dance crew. It is about what it means to be an adolescent girl in the age of TikTok and Instagram, where ‘likes’ and ‘followers’ have become the currency of self esteem and social media.

Maïmouna Doucouré, the director created this film to create awareness of this exact sexual exploitation happening in society, but ironically the film’s (Netflix’s) marketing team marketed this film using this exploitation. The film when released in Sundance Film Festival in January was met with rave reviews and earned Maïmouna a directing award. Actress Tessa Thompson, who saw the film was disappointed with the marketing as it wasn’t the film she saw. Netflix has since apologized publicly for it’s marketing artwork.

According to the RTUK’s ruling last week, the film contained elements of exploitation and abuse and might lead to potential exploitative behaviour pattern emerging among the young audience who might watch this.