Desert Flower

"From the desert to the catwalk: In order to avoid an arranged marriage, 13-year-old Waris Dirie fled her village in the Somali capital of Mogadishu and made her way to London with the help of relatives. Faced with having to return to the African continent a couple of years later, she went into hiding – until star photographer Terry Donaldson came across her and changed everything. Designers were desperate for the nomad girl and Waris Dirie rose to become one of the world’s most famous models. She triggered a worldwide media response at the height of her career when she revealed the dark secret of her genital circumcision. This reaction encouraged Waris Dirie to dedicate her future life to fighting against this cruelly archaic ritual. This is Sherry Hormann’s moving adaptation of Waris Dirie’s autobiography “Desert Flower”." Quoting the synopsis on the Zurich Film Festival site.