The Body Beautiful

Overview

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.

Director: Ngozi Onwurah

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

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Richard Gray

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Haley McKay