Cut: Slicing Through the Myths of Circumcision

The subject of male infant circumcision has long been taboo in polite company, even among people who have no trouble discussing and celebrating the strides being made to curb female genital cutting.

In his film CUT, director/narrator Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon patiently develops a framework to treat this topic with its due sincerity. We are, after all, talking about making a decision for someone else about how much penis he gets to keep. Do we dare make this decision flippantly? We meet the filmmaker's orthodox Jewish family, we meet secular and religious experts, and we meet men who've been circumcised and wish they hadn't been (including some who have found a way to non-surgically undo some of circumcision's effects). We also meet a family facing the choice for their newborn son.

The film arms us with knowledge about what the foreskin is and what it does, and it presents the material in a way that respects those who would struggle with this decision, and ultimately lets the viewer come to terms with whose decision it really is.