Netflix has apologised for a promotional poster used for the French film Cuties, following widespread backlash on social media for sexualising young girls in the image. Several people were appalled by the poster, and thousands have since signed a petition to have the film removed from Netflix.
The petition called the film ‘disgusting’ for sexualising an 11-year-old girl “for the viewing pleasure of pedophiles”, and also said it was “dangerous content.”
Netflix has since removed the contentious poster, and apologised for sharing it. “We're deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for Mignonnes/Cuties. It was not OK, nor was it representative of this French film which won an award at Sundance. We’ve now updated the pictures and description,” the streaming platform said on Twitter.
The film will be released on Netflix on September 9.
The French film, originally titled Mignonnes, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in January. It is the feature debut of French-Senegalese filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré, who won the Best Director award in the World Cinema Dramatic section at Sundance for Mignonnes.
Comparisons have been drawn between the promotional images chosen by Netflix, and the posters previously used for the French version of the film, which showed the same young girls in a different light, as children having fun on the street.
In an interview with Cineuropa, director Maïmouna Doucouré called the film “an uncompromising portrait of an 11-year-old girl plunged in a world that imposes a series of dictates on her.” She said it was important to understand the girls, “to give them a voice, to take into account the complexity of what they’re living through in society, and all of that in parallel with their childhood which is always there, their imaginary, their innocence.”
She also said that during her research, she saw many young girls who were “very exposed” on social media, and posted “revealing pictures” which made them famous. “Today, the sexier and the more objectified a woman is, the more value she has in the eyes of social media. And when you’re 11, you don’t really understand all these mechanisms, but you tend to mimic ... I think it is urgent that we talk about it, that a debate be had on the subject,” Doucouré had said.
The film’s synopsis on Netflix earlier said that an 11-year-old girl called Amy “becomes fascinated with a twerking dance crew” in trying to escape her dysfunctional family, and starts to “explore her femininity” while hoping to join the crew.
The synopsis has now been changed to read: “Eleven-year-old Amy starts to rebel against her conservative family’s traditions when she becomes fascinated with a free-spirited dance crew.”
Watch the Netflix trailer for Cuties: