The Body Beautiful

Name: The Body Beautiful
Genre: Drama
Released: 1991-10-03
Duration: 25 min
Rating: 7.1
Cast: Madge Onwurah, Rosie Rowell, Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre, Brian Bovell, Maureen Douglass

1991·Drama·25m

7.1

★

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.

Directed by Ngozi Onwurah

woman director

IMDB

N/A

Cast

Rosie Rowell

Narrator (voice) Daughter

Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre

The Daughter (as Sian Martin)

Brian Bovell

Young Man

Valentine Nonyela

Peter

Saffron Burrows

Model

Crew

Ngozi Onwurah

Director

Ngozi Onwurah

Writer

Popular Reviews

9 reviews

vilaney

10.0★ · 07/22/24

an autofiction that acts as the confluence of hauntological beauty and introspective extrospection (vice versa)... this is short but poignant, an awe-full chilling piece of artistry that forgoes nought in its attempt to capture this sense of nostalgic woe (among other things) stemming from looking back on the past from another perspective. while aspects of this are wholly foreign to me, the evocatively expressive imagery allows for nothing but commiseration and understanding... simply gorgeous, inside and out.

Sid

8.0★ · 03/16/26

Medalit

8.0★ · 11/28/25

Eclectic Sorcerer

8.0★ · 08/19/25

Eclectic Sorcerer

8.0★ · 08/19/25