The Body Beautiful

The Body Beautiful

23 mins | Drama | Oct. 3, 1991

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.

The Body Beautiful

23 mins | Drama | Oct. 3, 1991

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.
IMDb rating 6.4
Producers British Film Institute
Original title The Body Beautiful
Directors Kanayo Onwurah, Ngozi Onwurah
Writers Ngozi Onwurah

Cast

Madge Onwurah

as Mother

Sian Martin

as Daughter

Brian Bovell

as Youth

Maureen Douglass

as Young Mother

Saffron Burrows

as Model