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.

Cast

Madge Onwurah

Narrator (voice) Mother/Herself

Rosie Rowell

Narrator (voice) Daughter

Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre

The Daughter (as Sian Martin)

Brian Bovell

Young Man

Maureen Douglass

Young Mother

Valentine Nonyela

Peter

Louis Altinson

Linda Dobson

Richard Gray

Haley McKay

Michael McKay

Nina McKay

Saffron Burrows

Model

Nadja Carr

Model

Ann Parks

Model