"Women need to remember that their bodies belong to them."
This weekend at the Locarno Film Festival, Swiss director Barbara Miller presented her activist documentary #Female Pleasure, described as "a plea for the liberation of female sexuality in the twenty-first century". This feminist documentary film obviously echoes the #MeToo movement that had aroused a lot of interest in countering violence, humiliation and sexual assault against women. Indeed, a big question arises from the beginning of the trailer: "what could have happened billions of years ago that they felt compelled to inflict this on our bodies?"
In her documentary, Barbara Miller follows five women from different countries, cultures and religions to highlight "the oldest injustice in the world". In the trailer of her film, several shocking phrases come to our ears with the very clear aim of awakening consciences: "As a woman, I knew I was a threat to this world" or "Patriarchy is a universal religion". The director was of course keen to make it clear to Variety magazine that #Female Pleasure does not act to denounce or compare the impact of religions on women and their bodies, but to show universal male control over women's freedoms and "the demonization of their bodies and sexuality".
#Female Pleasure is expected in November in Swiss, German and Austrian cinemas, but is not scheduled for a France release.
