We live in strange times. This young century has been defined by harrowing disasters both natural and man-made, political tribalism, and existential threats to the future of the planet. What better time for documentary filmmaking?
Non-fiction cinema has been evolving since the birth of the medium while capturing a world in motion. From the actualités of the Lumière brothers in the late 19th century to the heavily manipulated ethnographic films of the 1920, from the vérité films of the Maysles brothers to the man-on-the-street agitprop popularized by Michael Moore, documentaries have naturally always been more responsive to their times than any other mode of filmmaking.
Not only do they reveal our world to us, but they shape how we view it, and the early years of the 21st century have proven that to be more true than ever before. On one hand, digital technology has infinitely expanded our range of vision,...
Non-fiction cinema has been evolving since the birth of the medium while capturing a world in motion. From the actualités of the Lumière brothers in the late 19th century to the heavily manipulated ethnographic films of the 1920, from the vérité films of the Maysles brothers to the man-on-the-street agitprop popularized by Michael Moore, documentaries have naturally always been more responsive to their times than any other mode of filmmaking.
Not only do they reveal our world to us, but they shape how we view it, and the early years of the 21st century have proven that to be more true than ever before. On one hand, digital technology has infinitely expanded our range of vision,...
- 3/27/2024
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
As the voting window for the Oscar shortlists approaches, Academy members are considering Kaouther Ben Hania’s film Four Daughters in not one, but two categories: Best Documentary Film and Best International Feature.
In August, Tunisia selected Ben Hania’s documentary as its official entry for International Film, the third time the director has been chosen for that honor, following 2017’s Beauty and the Dogs and 2020’s The Man Who Sold His Skin, which went on to earn an Oscar nomination. Both of those earlier films were narrative dramas, and there are dramatic elements in Four Daughters: Ben Hania enlisted three actresses to participate in her documentary.
Olfa Hamrouni, protagonist of ‘Four Daughters,’ at the Cannes Film Festival.
Four Daughters tells the story of Olfa, a working-class Tunisian woman who raised four girls: Ghofrane, Rahma, Eya, and Tayssir. After the Arab Spring led to the ouster of Tunisia’s...
In August, Tunisia selected Ben Hania’s documentary as its official entry for International Film, the third time the director has been chosen for that honor, following 2017’s Beauty and the Dogs and 2020’s The Man Who Sold His Skin, which went on to earn an Oscar nomination. Both of those earlier films were narrative dramas, and there are dramatic elements in Four Daughters: Ben Hania enlisted three actresses to participate in her documentary.
Olfa Hamrouni, protagonist of ‘Four Daughters,’ at the Cannes Film Festival.
Four Daughters tells the story of Olfa, a working-class Tunisian woman who raised four girls: Ghofrane, Rahma, Eya, and Tayssir. After the Arab Spring led to the ouster of Tunisia’s...
- 11/27/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Independents are out in force with high-profile fall festival fare from Pricilla to The Holdovers, a big Viva Pictures push with Inspector Sun (voiced by Ronny Chieng), Cannes documentary winner Four Daughters and Waikiki, the debut feature by Hawaiian filmmaker Christopher Kahunahana. the first homegrown feature to be shown there.
Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla from A24 is playing New York and Los Angeles this weekend including sold out Q&a’s with the director and star Cailee Spaeny, Best Actress winner at the Venice Film Festival where Priscilla premiered, see Deadline review. Jacob Elordi stars as Elvis.
The story of the singer’s romantic partner and only wife told from her perspective is based on the book Elvis And Me by Priscilla Presley following her early years as a teenage army brat stationed in West Germany to her surreal arrival at Graceland. Rolls out nationwide next week.
Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla from A24 is playing New York and Los Angeles this weekend including sold out Q&a’s with the director and star Cailee Spaeny, Best Actress winner at the Venice Film Festival where Priscilla premiered, see Deadline review. Jacob Elordi stars as Elvis.
The story of the singer’s romantic partner and only wife told from her perspective is based on the book Elvis And Me by Priscilla Presley following her early years as a teenage army brat stationed in West Germany to her surreal arrival at Graceland. Rolls out nationwide next week.
- 10/27/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Leave Them to Heaven: Ben Hania Experiments with Form in Anguishing Roleplay
For her sixth feature, Four Daughters, Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania takes a peculiar approach in examining a familial tragedy. Olfa Hamrouni, the mother of the titular four daughters, appears as herself in a project by Ben Hania meant to be a simultaneous reenactment and documentary regarding the radicalization of her two eldest daughters, Rahma and Gofrane, both arrested after the US military bombarded an Islamist State hideout in Sabratha in 2016. Ben Hania also appears as herself, announcing to Olfa and her two youngest daughters, Aya and Tayssir, the three of them would be playing themselves in a series of reproduced moments alongside actors hired to portray their missing siblings.…...
For her sixth feature, Four Daughters, Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania takes a peculiar approach in examining a familial tragedy. Olfa Hamrouni, the mother of the titular four daughters, appears as herself in a project by Ben Hania meant to be a simultaneous reenactment and documentary regarding the radicalization of her two eldest daughters, Rahma and Gofrane, both arrested after the US military bombarded an Islamist State hideout in Sabratha in 2016. Ben Hania also appears as herself, announcing to Olfa and her two youngest daughters, Aya and Tayssir, the three of them would be playing themselves in a series of reproduced moments alongside actors hired to portray their missing siblings.…...
- 10/27/2023
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Inserting yourself into the story you’re telling is always a risk. Kaouther Ben Hania, the director of Four Daughters, makes herself known in her docu-fiction experiment, seen coaching to some extent her subjects. The film moving between the rooms of their family home and a backstage setting with makeup being applied (perhaps admitting to the surprisingly glossy look of much of the film), it readily anticipates criticism of itself for exploitation. Though lining a couch for much of the runtime, our five subjects are very comfortable in front of the camera, and you kind of just trust them.
Sharing a title with Curtiz but not shaming it, in Armond terms, Four Daughters is definitely an admirable, if uneven experiment. A teary tone is set from near the beginning and it’s hard not to be at least a little moved; two of the four daughters in this family have...
Sharing a title with Curtiz but not shaming it, in Armond terms, Four Daughters is definitely an admirable, if uneven experiment. A teary tone is set from near the beginning and it’s hard not to be at least a little moved; two of the four daughters in this family have...
- 10/26/2023
- by Ethan Vestby
- The Film Stage
"Are you not ashamed?" Kino Lorber has debuted another trailer for the film titled Four Daughters, a doc hybrid from acclaimed Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania (also of Beauty and the Dogs & The Man Who Sold His Skin). It's opening in select US theaters soon - playing at a few art house cinemas. The film initially premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Many great reviews are quoted in this trailer. Winner of four prizes including the L'Oeil d'Or (Best Documentary) at Cannes, Four Daughters is a compelling portrait of five women and a unique and ambitious work of nonfiction storytelling exploring the nature of memory, the weight of inherited trauma, and the ties that bind mothers and daughters. Between light and darkness stands Olfa – a Tunisian woman who is the mother of four daughters. One day, her two older daughters disappear. To fill in their absence, the...
- 10/24/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
For filmmakers, few honors can compare to premiering a movie in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. And for fans of international cinema around the world, seeing a Cannes hit opening in theaters after a long wait can be one of the most exciting moviegoing events of the year. This weekend promises to bring such a treat to New York moviegoers, as Kaouther Ben Hania’s Tunisian metafictional documentary “Four Daughters” makes its way to select theaters.
The film tells the story of Olfa Hamrouni, a Tunisian woman who lost contact with two of her daughters when they left to join Isis. Hania documents the story of the family’s dissolution by casting two professional actors to play the estranged daughters. The narrative device invokes classic metafictional documentaries such as Abbas Kiarostami’s “Close-Up” by simultaneously telling a story and prompting viewers to question the reliability of the film in front of them.
The film tells the story of Olfa Hamrouni, a Tunisian woman who lost contact with two of her daughters when they left to join Isis. Hania documents the story of the family’s dissolution by casting two professional actors to play the estranged daughters. The narrative device invokes classic metafictional documentaries such as Abbas Kiarostami’s “Close-Up” by simultaneously telling a story and prompting viewers to question the reliability of the film in front of them.
- 10/24/2023
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Absence is at the heart of Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s cleverly constructed and sneakily powerful fiction-documentary hybrid Four Daughters. In the opening images, we see a woman, Olfa, and her two daughters, Eya and Tayssir. Before we can even wonder where the other two daughters implied in the title might be, Hania informs us via voice over that the two eldest, Rahma and Ghofrane, were “devoured by the wolf.”
The meaning of that phrase isn’t revealed until the third act of Ben Hania’s film. But before we get there, Hania tells the story of how and why those two daughters were compelled to abruptly leave home—fracturing a family that, now eight years later, is still recovering—by employing two actors, Nour Karoui and Ichrak Matar, to play Rahma and Ghofrane, respectively, and another, Majd Mastoura, to play various male figures. And in certain scenes that are especially harrowing,...
The meaning of that phrase isn’t revealed until the third act of Ben Hania’s film. But before we get there, Hania tells the story of how and why those two daughters were compelled to abruptly leave home—fracturing a family that, now eight years later, is still recovering—by employing two actors, Nour Karoui and Ichrak Matar, to play Rahma and Ghofrane, respectively, and another, Majd Mastoura, to play various male figures. And in certain scenes that are especially harrowing,...
- 10/23/2023
- by Derek Smith
- Slant Magazine
Kaouther Ben Hania on Tunisia’s Oscar submission Four Daughters (Les Filles d'Olfa): “It’s a movie about real people but it’s also a reality that doesn’t exist outside this movie.”
Kaouther Ben Hania in Four Daughters tells the story of Olfa Hamrouni and her four daughters. Eya Chikhaoui and Tayssir Chikhaoui, the two youngest, are with their mother, while the two oldest Ghofrane Chikaoui and Rahma Chikhaoui are imprisoned in Libya for terrorism charges. In the film they are portrayed by actors Ichrak Matar and Nour Karoui respectively, and the mother finds herself doubled as well, by actress Hind Sabri, for scenes that, as the director explains in the hybrid documentary, might be too upsetting for Olfa to relive. Ben Hania’s The Man Who Sold His Skin had received a Best International Film Oscar nomination in 2021 and her intense and unwavering Beauty And The Dogs.
Kaouther Ben Hania in Four Daughters tells the story of Olfa Hamrouni and her four daughters. Eya Chikhaoui and Tayssir Chikhaoui, the two youngest, are with their mother, while the two oldest Ghofrane Chikaoui and Rahma Chikhaoui are imprisoned in Libya for terrorism charges. In the film they are portrayed by actors Ichrak Matar and Nour Karoui respectively, and the mother finds herself doubled as well, by actress Hind Sabri, for scenes that, as the director explains in the hybrid documentary, might be too upsetting for Olfa to relive. Ben Hania’s The Man Who Sold His Skin had received a Best International Film Oscar nomination in 2021 and her intense and unwavering Beauty And The Dogs.
- 10/22/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Kino Lorber has unveiled an official US trailer for an indie film from Tunisia titled Four Daughters, the latest from acclaimed Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania (also of and Beauty and the Dogs & The Man Who Sold His Skin). This premiered in competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, and it also screens at the London Film Festival next. Winner of four prizes including the L'Oeil d'Or (Best Documentary) when it screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, Four Daughters is a compelling portrait of five women and a unique and ambitious work of nonfiction storytelling that explores the nature of memory, the weight of inherited trauma, and the ties that bind mothers and daughters. Between light and darkness stands Olfa – a Tunisian woman who is the mother of four daughters. One day, her two older daughters disappear. To fill in their absence, the director invites professional...
- 9/21/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...
Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...
- 9/1/2023
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
Kaouther Ben Hania’s heartbreaking Tunisian documentary Four Daughters has taken the top prize of best international film at the 2023 Munich International Film Festival.
The film tells the story of Olfa Hamrouni, a Tunisian mother whose two eldest daughters left the country to join the Islamic State in Libya, never to be seen again. In her exploration of Hamrouni’s story, Ben Hania hires two actors to play Olfa’s missing daughters. The docu-drama hybrid premiered in Cannes, where it won the Golden Eye for best documentary (shared with Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies).
Another hybrid feature from Cannes, The Buriti Flower, took Munich’s CineVision Award for best international emerging director for helmers João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora. The film, made in close collaboration with the Krahô people of Brazil, is a fusion of ethnography and poetic narrative, exploring the group’s tribal memories.
The film tells the story of Olfa Hamrouni, a Tunisian mother whose two eldest daughters left the country to join the Islamic State in Libya, never to be seen again. In her exploration of Hamrouni’s story, Ben Hania hires two actors to play Olfa’s missing daughters. The docu-drama hybrid premiered in Cannes, where it won the Golden Eye for best documentary (shared with Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies).
Another hybrid feature from Cannes, The Buriti Flower, took Munich’s CineVision Award for best international emerging director for helmers João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora. The film, made in close collaboration with the Krahô people of Brazil, is a fusion of ethnography and poetic narrative, exploring the group’s tribal memories.
- 7/1/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Further international deals announced by The Party Film Sales.
Kino Lorber has acquired US rights to Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters which won the L’Oeil d’Or Award for best documentary in Cannes last month.
‘Four Daughters’: Cannes Review
The film distributor plans an ongoing international festival circuit run prior to a theatrical release in autumn, followed by a digital and home video release.
The sole Arab film in Competition on the Croisette, Four Daughters explores rebellion, memory, and reconstructs the story of Tunisia’s Olfa Hamrouni and her daughters as it unpacks a complex family history...
Kino Lorber has acquired US rights to Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters which won the L’Oeil d’Or Award for best documentary in Cannes last month.
‘Four Daughters’: Cannes Review
The film distributor plans an ongoing international festival circuit run prior to a theatrical release in autumn, followed by a digital and home video release.
The sole Arab film in Competition on the Croisette, Four Daughters explores rebellion, memory, and reconstructs the story of Tunisia’s Olfa Hamrouni and her daughters as it unpacks a complex family history...
- 6/22/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Kino Lorber has acquired the U.S. rights to Tunisian director and Oscar nominee Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters, which shared the L’Oeil d’Or Award for best documentary at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Cannes competition entry, which uses professional actors to help re-enact one family’s devastating experience of loss, will open theatrically this fall, followed by a digital and home video release on major platforms.
“Ben Hania casts accomplished actors to perform alongside her real-life documentary subjects, adding a layer of complexity that gives agency to her collaborators and mines truth from the space it occupies between fact and memory. We couldn’t be more thrilled to bring this groundbreaking documentary to U.S. audiences this fall,” Wendy Lidell, senior vp theatrical distribution and acquisitions at Kino Lorber, said Thursday in a statement.
Four Daughters is written and directed by Ben Hania, whose 2020 film The Man Who Sold His Skin...
The Cannes competition entry, which uses professional actors to help re-enact one family’s devastating experience of loss, will open theatrically this fall, followed by a digital and home video release on major platforms.
“Ben Hania casts accomplished actors to perform alongside her real-life documentary subjects, adding a layer of complexity that gives agency to her collaborators and mines truth from the space it occupies between fact and memory. We couldn’t be more thrilled to bring this groundbreaking documentary to U.S. audiences this fall,” Wendy Lidell, senior vp theatrical distribution and acquisitions at Kino Lorber, said Thursday in a statement.
Four Daughters is written and directed by Ben Hania, whose 2020 film The Man Who Sold His Skin...
- 6/22/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. rights to “Four Daughters,” Kaouther Ben Hania’s film which competed at the Cannes Film Festival.
The competition’s sole Arab film, “Four Daughters” mixes documentary and fiction to tell the story of a Tunisian mother whose two elder daughters joined Isis. It won L’Oeil d’or or “Golden Eye” Award at Cannes for best documentary and is now set to roll off into the international festival circuit. Kino Lorber plans to release it theatrically this fall, followed by a digital and home video release on all major platforms.
The New York-based distribution company has high hopes for “Four Daughters” during the next awards season. Last year’s L’Oeil d’Or winner, “All That Breathes,” went on to earn an Oscar nomination for best documentary. Ben Hania previously earned an Oscar nomination with her 2020 film “The Man Who Sold His Skin” in the international feature film category.
The competition’s sole Arab film, “Four Daughters” mixes documentary and fiction to tell the story of a Tunisian mother whose two elder daughters joined Isis. It won L’Oeil d’or or “Golden Eye” Award at Cannes for best documentary and is now set to roll off into the international festival circuit. Kino Lorber plans to release it theatrically this fall, followed by a digital and home video release on all major platforms.
The New York-based distribution company has high hopes for “Four Daughters” during the next awards season. Last year’s L’Oeil d’Or winner, “All That Breathes,” went on to earn an Oscar nomination for best documentary. Ben Hania previously earned an Oscar nomination with her 2020 film “The Man Who Sold His Skin” in the international feature film category.
- 6/22/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Oscar-nominated Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s powerful drama “Four Daughters” which mixes documentary and fiction to tell the story of a Tunisian mother whose two elder daughters joined Isis is scoring a slew of sales following its well-received Cannes competition premiere.
French company The Party Films Sales has sealed deals on “Four Daughters” for: Benelux (Cineart); Spain (Caramel Films); Italy (I Wonder); Switzerland (Trigon); Sweden (Triart); Denmark (Camera Film); Norway (Arthaus); Finland (Cinemanse); Poland (New Horizons); Greece (Ama Films); former Yougoslavia (Discovery) and Turkey (Bir Film).
Rights to the film for multiple other territories are under negotiations, the company said.
Ben Hania – whose previous works comprise “Beauty and the Dogs” and “The Man Who Sold His Skin” – in “Four Daughters” delves into the story of Tunisia’s Olfa Hamrouni who rose to international prominence in April 2016 when she publicized the radicalization of her two teenage daughters who had left Tunisia to fight with Isis.
French company The Party Films Sales has sealed deals on “Four Daughters” for: Benelux (Cineart); Spain (Caramel Films); Italy (I Wonder); Switzerland (Trigon); Sweden (Triart); Denmark (Camera Film); Norway (Arthaus); Finland (Cinemanse); Poland (New Horizons); Greece (Ama Films); former Yougoslavia (Discovery) and Turkey (Bir Film).
Rights to the film for multiple other territories are under negotiations, the company said.
Ben Hania – whose previous works comprise “Beauty and the Dogs” and “The Man Who Sold His Skin” – in “Four Daughters” delves into the story of Tunisia’s Olfa Hamrouni who rose to international prominence in April 2016 when she publicized the radicalization of her two teenage daughters who had left Tunisia to fight with Isis.
- 5/24/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
It’s easy to get trapped in circuitous arguments surrounding documentary ethics at the best of times, but Kaouther Ben Hania’s metafictional “Four Daughters” — involving young children, abuse, trauma and re-enactments — appears to chart these knotty waters as a barefaced challenge. This Tunisian entry into Cannes’ Official Competition is a bold behemoth of an undertaking, which is veiled, unveiled and then re-veiled with endless angles and perspectives; it’s a veritable snakepit of uneasy decisions that grips you with its novel approach to so-called truth-telling before lapsing into something a little more conventional. Far from a gamble made in the service of naturalism, this heightened and strange piece of fiction re-enactment exposes itself for critique in a way that you almost have to respect. For its sins, it seems to —just about— succeed.
“Four Daughters” orbits the trauma of a Tunisian woman named Olfa and her youngest daughters, Tayssir and Eya.
“Four Daughters” orbits the trauma of a Tunisian woman named Olfa and her youngest daughters, Tayssir and Eya.
- 5/21/2023
- by Steph Green
- Indiewire
Kaouther Ben Hania, the Oscar-nominated director of “The Man Who Sold His Skin” whose latest film “Four Daughters” is competing at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, will next direct “Mimesis,” an epic love story set in Tunisia.
While the plot is under wraps, the story is set in two different periods, the 1990s and the 1940s, paying tribute to cinema and Arab-Muslim cultural heritage. It’s being produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha at Tanit Films, who produced Ben Hania’s “Four Daughters” and her previous film “The Man Who Sold His Skin” which world premiered at Venice where it won best actor for Yahya Mahayni and was nominated for best international film at the Oscars in 2021.
Mahayn starred in the film as a Syrian refugee who accepts to have a large Schengen visa, the document he desperately needs to enter Europe, tattooed on his back by a famous artist, thus...
While the plot is under wraps, the story is set in two different periods, the 1990s and the 1940s, paying tribute to cinema and Arab-Muslim cultural heritage. It’s being produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha at Tanit Films, who produced Ben Hania’s “Four Daughters” and her previous film “The Man Who Sold His Skin” which world premiered at Venice where it won best actor for Yahya Mahayni and was nominated for best international film at the Oscars in 2021.
Mahayn starred in the film as a Syrian refugee who accepts to have a large Schengen visa, the document he desperately needs to enter Europe, tattooed on his back by a famous artist, thus...
- 5/21/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Actors and real people re-enact the past to understand why two daughters left Tunisia to fight for Is in Syria, leaving the rest of the family behind
There is real emotional warmth and human sympathy in this otherwise somewhat flawed film, a docudrama experiment in getting actors to play some of the real people in a tragic news story from Tunisia. Olfa Hamrouni, a divorced woman from the coastal town of Sousse, made the headlines seven years ago when two of her four daughters, Rahma and Ghofrane, broke her and their sisters’ hearts by vanishing from the country to become fighters and wives for Islamic State in Syria. Now director Kaouther Ben Hania re-enacts key parts of Olfa’s family life, featuring the remaining sisters Eya and Tayssir playing themselves, but performers playing the vanished fugitives: Ichraq Matar is Ghofrane and Nour Karoui is Rahma.
Despite the fact that she hasn’t vanished,...
There is real emotional warmth and human sympathy in this otherwise somewhat flawed film, a docudrama experiment in getting actors to play some of the real people in a tragic news story from Tunisia. Olfa Hamrouni, a divorced woman from the coastal town of Sousse, made the headlines seven years ago when two of her four daughters, Rahma and Ghofrane, broke her and their sisters’ hearts by vanishing from the country to become fighters and wives for Islamic State in Syria. Now director Kaouther Ben Hania re-enacts key parts of Olfa’s family life, featuring the remaining sisters Eya and Tayssir playing themselves, but performers playing the vanished fugitives: Ichraq Matar is Ghofrane and Nour Karoui is Rahma.
Despite the fact that she hasn’t vanished,...
- 5/20/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Another first-timer in the comp, Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania came to Cannes in 2017 for the Un Certain Regard section selected Beauty and the Dogs. She was last showcased in Venice with The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020 – Orizzonti section). Four Daughters (aka Les filles d’Olfa) proposes a hybrid look that might remind some what Kitty Green achieved in the recent past.
Between light and darkness stands Olfa, a Tunisian woman and the mother of four daughters. One day, her two older daughters disappear. To fill in their absence, the filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania invites professional actresses and invents a unique cinema experience that will lift the veil on Olfa and her daughters’ life stories.…...
Between light and darkness stands Olfa, a Tunisian woman and the mother of four daughters. One day, her two older daughters disappear. To fill in their absence, the filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania invites professional actresses and invents a unique cinema experience that will lift the veil on Olfa and her daughters’ life stories.…...
- 5/20/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
It is rare to get a glimpse into the inner lives of those who join the harsh, nihilistic world of Isis. It’s even more rare – almost impossible – to understand the women who have given up their freedom and disappeared under the shroud of niqab.
It is a life of poverty and the strictest Islamic discipline. A life of marginalization from the world and one where violence is a constant theme. And a life utterly cut off from family.
It is through this latter keyhole that “Four Daughters” (“Les Filles d’Olfa”) director Kaouther Ben Hania peers into in an unusual verite docu-drama about the shattering of a family when two daughters join radical Islam.
Tunisian mother Olfa has four daughters, all beautiful. We meet two of them, Eya and Tayssir, now in their 20s, dressed in jeans and t-shirts, who are joined by two actresses who play their missing older sisters,...
It is a life of poverty and the strictest Islamic discipline. A life of marginalization from the world and one where violence is a constant theme. And a life utterly cut off from family.
It is through this latter keyhole that “Four Daughters” (“Les Filles d’Olfa”) director Kaouther Ben Hania peers into in an unusual verite docu-drama about the shattering of a family when two daughters join radical Islam.
Tunisian mother Olfa has four daughters, all beautiful. We meet two of them, Eya and Tayssir, now in their 20s, dressed in jeans and t-shirts, who are joined by two actresses who play their missing older sisters,...
- 5/20/2023
- by Sharon Waxman
- The Wrap
Using actors to bring to life story elements within documentary film is becoming a more widespread practice, if one that’s still viewed with skepticism by some purists.
The films of Robert Greene spring to mind – Kate Plays Christine and Procession, for instance – and Kitty Green’s Casting JonBenet. Errol Morris cast Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Blake Nelson, Bob Balaban and other stars to dramatize extended sequences in Wormwood, and famously used actors in the critical murder scene reenactment in the The Thin Blue Line.
The technique achieves a new level of artistry and organic relevance in Kaouther Ben Hania’s documentary Four Daughters (Les Filles d’Olfa), which premiered tonight in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The Tunisian director cast actresses to play Olfa Hamrouni and her two eldest daughters, Rahma and Ghofrane, who as teenagers abruptly disappeared from the family home after becoming attached to radical Islamist ideology. Only...
The films of Robert Greene spring to mind – Kate Plays Christine and Procession, for instance – and Kitty Green’s Casting JonBenet. Errol Morris cast Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Blake Nelson, Bob Balaban and other stars to dramatize extended sequences in Wormwood, and famously used actors in the critical murder scene reenactment in the The Thin Blue Line.
The technique achieves a new level of artistry and organic relevance in Kaouther Ben Hania’s documentary Four Daughters (Les Filles d’Olfa), which premiered tonight in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The Tunisian director cast actresses to play Olfa Hamrouni and her two eldest daughters, Rahma and Ghofrane, who as teenagers abruptly disappeared from the family home after becoming attached to radical Islamist ideology. Only...
- 5/19/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Kaouther Ben Hania’s heartbreaking Four Daughters (Les filles d’Olfa) pulls you in with a question: Who is Olfa Hamrouni?
She rose to international fame in 2016 when she criticized the Tunisian government for not preventing her daughters from joining the Islamic State in Libya. In interviews from those years, Hamrouni is a bereaved mother. Her voice aches with pain as she recounts the loss of her two eldest daughters, and it shakes with anger when she speaks of the government’s listless response.
The Olfa of Ben Hania’s docu-fiction strikes a more relaxed pose. She has traded her pink hijabs for a black scarf, tightly woven around her head. She’s freer with her laughs and more pointed with her asides. Grief still undergirds her anecdotes, but so does a palpable willingness to share. She eagerly explains how she believes a movie about her life will help spread an...
She rose to international fame in 2016 when she criticized the Tunisian government for not preventing her daughters from joining the Islamic State in Libya. In interviews from those years, Hamrouni is a bereaved mother. Her voice aches with pain as she recounts the loss of her two eldest daughters, and it shakes with anger when she speaks of the government’s listless response.
The Olfa of Ben Hania’s docu-fiction strikes a more relaxed pose. She has traded her pink hijabs for a black scarf, tightly woven around her head. She’s freer with her laughs and more pointed with her asides. Grief still undergirds her anecdotes, but so does a palpable willingness to share. She eagerly explains how she believes a movie about her life will help spread an...
- 5/19/2023
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Oscar-nominated Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania is back in Cannes with “Four Daughters” a powerful drama that mixes documentary and fiction to delve into the story of Tunisia’s Olfa Hamrouni who rose to international prominence in April 2016 when she publicized the radicalization of her two teenage daughters who had left Tunisia to fight with Isis.
The film, which is the only Arab entry in competition, stars Egyptian-Tunisian star Hend Sabri in the lead role of an actor who must play Hamrouni and gets coaching from the real Olfa on how to prepare for the role. Ben Hania spoke to Variety about the bold choice she made.
What drew you to want to dig deep into Olfa’s story?
So it was in 2016, and there was media interest around this story and a lot of similar stories. And I heard the mother giving an interview on the radio. The way she was talking,...
The film, which is the only Arab entry in competition, stars Egyptian-Tunisian star Hend Sabri in the lead role of an actor who must play Hamrouni and gets coaching from the real Olfa on how to prepare for the role. Ben Hania spoke to Variety about the bold choice she made.
What drew you to want to dig deep into Olfa’s story?
So it was in 2016, and there was media interest around this story and a lot of similar stories. And I heard the mother giving an interview on the radio. The way she was talking,...
- 5/19/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
The Festival de Cannes has announced the lineup for the Official Selection of the 76th edition of the festival, including the Competition and Un Certain Regard sections, as well as Special Screenings. The festival will take place from May 16 through May 27.Killers of the Flower Moon.COMPETITIONClub Zero (Jessica Hausner) Miss Novak joins the staff of an international boarding school to teach a conscious eating class. She instructs that eating less is healthy. The other teachers are slow to notice what is happening and by the time the distracted parents begin to realise, Club Zero has become a reality.The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer) The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki) Fallen Leaves tells the story of two lonely people (Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen...
- 5/12/2023
- MUBI
The morning of the Cannes lineup press conference is often described by movie journalists as ‘Christmas for arthouse film-lovers’. Yesterday was no different, with fest head Thierry Frémaux returning in his role as Santa to dole out gifts to a bevvy of expectant industry and writers.
Below are some of the key talking points from another intriguing lineup, which will be officially unwrapped from May 16th.
To Compete Or Not To Compete?
As it stands, Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon will play Out Of Competition. However, Thierry Frémaux spelled out that he has been trying to convince Apple and Scorsese that their film should play in Competition. So far, the Moon is not for turning. The conversation is ongoing, so things could change — there is still space in the Competition. So what’s the issue? It was a real coup for the festival to get the Apple movie,...
Below are some of the key talking points from another intriguing lineup, which will be officially unwrapped from May 16th.
To Compete Or Not To Compete?
As it stands, Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon will play Out Of Competition. However, Thierry Frémaux spelled out that he has been trying to convince Apple and Scorsese that their film should play in Competition. So far, the Moon is not for turning. The conversation is ongoing, so things could change — there is still space in the Competition. So what’s the issue? It was a real coup for the festival to get the Apple movie,...
- 4/14/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
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