Featured Image Credit: Bac Films
Topics: Film and TV, Netflix, France
Ellie Kemp
A Netflix movie sparked so much controversy it landed the streamer in court and reportedly triggered an 800 percent increase in subscription cancellations.
The world's biggest streaming platform has faced some challenges on its way to the top.
And in September 2020, it added a French movie that sparked international outrage.
From filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré, it follows a young girls' dance troupe, and first debuted at Sundance film festival that January.
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Critics had praised the movie, but a Netflix promotional poster which supposedly 'sexualized children' catapulted it into the center of a social media storm.
Doucouré says she received death threats over it, while the streamer issued a public apology for using 'inappropriate artwork' to promote the film.
The movie in question, as you might remember, is called Cuties.
The coming-of-age flick sees Amy, a Senegalese-French girl with a traditional Muslim upbringing, rebel against her family as she joins a 'twerking' dance crew, becoming embroiled in a dangerous online world.
French-Senegalese director Doucouré told TIME it was inspired by her own personal experiences.
She told the publication: "For me, this film is sounding an alarm. This film tries to show that our children should have the time to be children, and we as adults should protect their innocence and keep them innocent as long as possible.”
But people were quick to slam the movie, as well as Netflix's decision to add it to its catalogue.
People feared shots of the young actresses dancing suggestively would encourage children to be sexualized.
In the days after Cuties joined Netflix, subscription cancellation rates jumped to 'nearly eight times higher than the average daily levels recorded in August 2020 - reaching a multiyear high', reported Variety, based on information from data-analytics provider YipitData.
Shortly after its Netflix release, the streamer was indicted by a grand jury in Tyler County, Texas, on a charge that it 'depicts the lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 years of age... and has no serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.'
Bizarrely, the district attorney was Lucas Babin, who played Spider in 2003's School of Rock.
Anyway, Netflix hit back, defending Cuties as 'a social commentary against the sexualization of young children.'
The case - and its subsequent appeal - were both dismissed.
Cuties remained on the platform until its removal in September 2024.
But this wasn't a delayed response to backlash.
Instead, it was simply because Cuties was sold to Netflix for a four-year license period, which expired.
Sometimes, the streaming giant renews its licences, but obviously it didn't on this occasion.
The movie is no longer available to stream via any platform.
And despite its controversy, the Cuties garnered a respectable 88 percent from Rotten Tomatoes critics, with its consensus reading: "A thoughtful look at the intricacies of girlhood in the modern age, Cuties is a coming-of-age film that confronts its themes with poignancy and nuance."