The Body Beautiful

This bold, stunning exploration of a white mother who undergoes a radical mastectomy and her Black daughter who embarks on a modeling career reveals the profound effects of body image and the strain of racial and sexual identity on their charged, intensely loving bond. At the heart of Onwurah’s brave excursion into her mother’s scorned sexuality is a provocative interweaving of memory and fantasy. The filmmaker plumbs the depths of maternal strength and daughterly devotion in an unforgettable tribute starring her real-life mother, Madge Onwurah.

Director: Ngozi Onwurah

Cast: Madge Onwurah, Rosie Rowell, Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre, Brian Bovell, Maureen Douglass, Valentine Nonyela, Louis Altinson, Linda Dobson

Audience-only score — full critic data not yet in the ReelXO vault.