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Director Beryl Magoko is embarking on a personal journey to courageously face her past, to accept and love herself and her own body as she considers reconstructive surgery for the female genital mutilation she underwent as a young girl. 

Synopsis

Director Beryl Magoko is embarking on a personal journey to courageously face her past, to accept and love herself and her own body. When Beryl learns of an opportunity for reconstructive surgery for the female genital mutilation she and her friends underwent as young girls, she has a growing community of women to consult, but ultimately, the decision is hers. Hosting frank and raw discussions with women – from friends and family in her rural birthplace in Kenya, to new friends in cities around Europe – together they uncover the beauty of collective strength and insight, examine the importance of female pleasure, and shed societally imposed shame around women’s bodies.

“When you cut the roots of a tree, it will never blossom. It will wither. That is what happens when you chop off the genitals of a woman. You silence her. You suppress her.” - Beryl Magoko, Director, In Search…

Winner of the 2019 Human Rights Watch Film Festival Nestor Almendros award for courage in filmmaking

 

 

Credits

Beryl Magoko

Director
Beryl Magoko is a Kenyan filmmaker. Her first film “The Cut” received several international awards. After her B.S. from KU in Uganda, she moved to Germany to improve her film making skills at the KHM in Cologne. She has finalized her diploma film “In Search…” which was premiered in Leipzig and won the “Audience Award – Leipziger Ring” and “Best Student Documentary at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam”. Filmography „Fred Fish Frying“ (2010, short) „The Cut“ (2012, medium length) „Water for Janet and Felicitas“(2013, short) “In Search…”(2018) “Othermothers”,(not released yet, medium length)