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
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
Co-winner of the Cannes 2023 Golden Eye, Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters is both compellingly crafted and deeply disturbing. The “fictional documentary” looks back on an infamous, winding and tumultuous Tunisian saga involving five women: the titular quartet of older siblings Ghofrane and Rahma and youngest Eya and Tayssir, along with their mother Olfa Hamrouni. The younger daughters appear as themselves, and the film features two actors taking on the roles of the oldest, a necessity since Ghofrane and Rahma can’t “play” themselves, having “disappeared” back in 2015 at the tender ages of […]
The post “A Journey That Allowed Us to Harness the Power of Storytelling”: Kaouther Ben Hania on her Cannes-winning Four Daughters first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “A Journey That Allowed Us to Harness the Power of Storytelling”: Kaouther Ben Hania on her Cannes-winning Four Daughters first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 10/27/2023
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Co-winner of the Cannes 2023 Golden Eye, Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters is both compellingly crafted and deeply disturbing. The “fictional documentary” looks back on an infamous, winding and tumultuous Tunisian saga involving five women: the titular quartet of older siblings Ghofrane and Rahma and youngest Eya and Tayssir, along with their mother Olfa Hamrouni. The younger daughters appear as themselves, and the film features two actors taking on the roles of the oldest, a necessity since Ghofrane and Rahma can’t “play” themselves, having “disappeared” back in 2015 at the tender ages of […]
The post “A Journey That Allowed Us to Harness the Power of Storytelling”: Kaouther Ben Hania on her Cannes-winning Four Daughters first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “A Journey That Allowed Us to Harness the Power of Storytelling”: Kaouther Ben Hania on her Cannes-winning Four Daughters first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 10/27/2023
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
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
The market runs November 16-17 as part of Tallinn Black Nights’ industry platform.
New projects from Afghan director Sahraa Karimi and Polish filmmaker Damian Kocur are among the 15 films to be showcased in the Baltic Event Co-Production Market which runs November 16-17.
Flight From Kabul is Karimi’s second feature after her debut Hava, Maryam, Ayesha premiered in Venice in 2019. The Slovakian co-production is based on Karimi’s own experiences of fleeing the Taliban.
Scroll down for full list of projects
Kocur presents his newest feature La Manche after winning best director at Venice Horizons last year with his debut Bread And Salt.
New projects from Afghan director Sahraa Karimi and Polish filmmaker Damian Kocur are among the 15 films to be showcased in the Baltic Event Co-Production Market which runs November 16-17.
Flight From Kabul is Karimi’s second feature after her debut Hava, Maryam, Ayesha premiered in Venice in 2019. The Slovakian co-production is based on Karimi’s own experiences of fleeing the Taliban.
Scroll down for full list of projects
Kocur presents his newest feature La Manche after winning best director at Venice Horizons last year with his debut Bread And Salt.
- 10/10/2023
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
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
At first, the signs were subtle. There was the “I am cringe, but I am free” meme, and the T-shirts from Gen Z e-commerce brand Ogbff emblazoned with “Too cringe for NY, too based for LA.” Niche creators like Neve Pratt (awkward dad-joker) and Michael Thomas White (heartfelt himbo) began to amass cult fandoms by being authentically themselves. So-called Pov TikTokers such as Devin Caherly and Emma Norton, who act out imaginary skits and were once viciously bashed by commenters, are now being embraced by the entertainment world, getting brand deals,...
- 4/23/2023
- by Taylor Lorenz
- Rollingstone.com
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