Here is a bracing documentary that manages smartly to yoke together two current preoccupations: colourful outsiders taking on the big boys at organised sport (in this case, a group of Maasai tribesmen who pitch up at Lords for a cricket tournament), and the rather more sober matter of a campaign to end female genital mutilation (FGM) among the same tribal community. Barney Douglas’s film begins cheerily enough, with cricket nut Aliya Bauer explaining how she brought the sport into the Maasai heartland, and the team – in full traditional dress – treading the velvety turf at the MCC.
The final third reveals the meat of the matter, however: the vaguely expressed idea that cricket has helped the Maasai eliminate FGM, by broadening the player’s horizons, translates into a reality as two generations of Maasai men agree an end to its practice. Warriors is probably most valuable for its insights into the practical issues facing the anti-FGM campaign daughters will go unmarried unless they force them to go through circumcision – but it’s leavened with some fun stuff, too.
