French dramedy divides audience

There are calls to cancel Netflix after the release of a film many have accused of being an incognito child porn film targeting paedophiles.

Whether people are calling for Netflix to receive a wider cultural ”cancelling” or for people to simply stop their subscriptions is unclear, though the latter is easier to pull off and many have been posting on social media to say they have.

The backlash is in response to French film Cuties, released on the platform on Wednesday.

The film focuses on a young Senegalese girl who joins a French hip-hop dance troupe.

It’s supposed to be a coming-ofage dramedy, based loosely on the experiences of writer and director Maimouna Doucoure, who makes her directorial debut.

The film premiered at Sundance and was acquired by Netflix.

While Doucoure says the film aims to shine a light on the challenges facing young girls growing up in an ultra-connected, imageobsessed world, some people are furious with the way she’s depicted it, and how Netflix has promoted it.

Doucoure said she received death threats after Netflix released the promotional poster (since changed), which she said she was not consulted on and which the head of the streaming platform reportedly called her to apologise for.

The New York Times reported the backlash being pushed among followers of QAnon conspiracy, who believe (among other things) that United States President Donald Trump will save the world from a cabal of elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles.

Others have argued the issue is too important to be turned into a partisan political debate (though one mistakenly thought the movie was a documentary).