Flower of the desert, the history of Waris Dirie

A fairy tale that shuts a tragedy up is the history of Waris Dirie, a girl born in Somalia between nomadic shepherds that there became one of the most famous models of his epoch.

When he was 13 years old, Waris fled of his family that had planned a wedding for expediency for her, and after covering the desert, on foot it managed to come to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Then, thanks to a few relatives who were living in London he traveled to be employed there like servant at the embassy of his country.

Later it kept on working - or surviving as it could - until it was discovered while it is employed at a fast food place for the famous photographer Terry Donaldson. From there from now on he was like all the girls they dream, the advertizing agencies were polishing his image and she was conquering the footbridges of the world.

In the way of this fairy tale there was a secret that in certain moment Waris decided to do public. In an interview it revealed that being a girl he had been a victim of an ablation, a practice in which the genitals of the girls are mutilated and which today is still realized in many countries of Africa and the Moslem world.

The value that this woman had to speak on this topic, which keeps on being silenced in our culture, opened the doors for many women, and was achieved so it was happening to be a topic of agenda of different organisms of human rights.

Since then, Waris Dirie has published three books in which he narrates his history and speaks on this practice, practice on which from a beginning he is in charge of clarifying that it has not anything in common with the cultural traditions, if not that is only a cruel abuse that million girls suffer in the world. This movie can be a good way of approaching the topic.

Without much ado, here is the trailer.

- Title role of Flower of the desert.

• Direction: Sherry Hormann.
• I distribute: Liya Kebede (Waris Dirie), Sally Hawkins (Marilyn), Timothy Spall (Terry Donaldson), Juliet Stevenson (Lucinda), Craig Parkinson (Neil), Anthony Mackie (Harold), Meera Syal (Pushpa), Soraya Omar-Scego (girl's Waris). Script: Sherry Hormann; from the autobiographical novel of Waris Dirie.
• Production: Peter Herrmann.
• Music: Martin Todsharow.
• It photographs: Ken Kelsch.
• Assembly: Clara Fabry.
• Production design: Jamie Leonard.
• Wardrobe: Gabriele Binder.
• Countries: Germany, Austria and France.
• Year: 2009.
• Duration: 124 min.
• Genre: Biopic, drama.
• I release in Spain: On March 12, 2010.