The Body Beautiful

The Body Beautiful — Plot

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.

• Release date
• October 3, 1991
• Runtime
• 25 min
• Genres
• Drama
• Director
• Ngozi Onwurah

The Body Beautiful — Cast

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Madge Onwurah Narrator (voice) Mother/Herself Rosie Rowell Narrator (voice) Daughter Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre The Daughter (as Sian Martin) Brian Bovell Young Man

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Maureen Douglass Young Mother Valentine Nonyela Peter

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Louis Altinson

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Linda Dobson