A Tunisian director born in 1977, Kaouther Ben Hania studied at the Tunis School of Arts and Cinema and the Fémis in Paris, before directing her first professional short film, Me, my Sister and the Thing (“Moi, ma sœur et la chose”), in 2006. That same year she also joined the Al Jazeera Documentary team, where she worked for one year.

After directing a second short film (Wooden Hand (“Peau de colle”), 2013), two documentaries (Imams Go to School (“Les imams vont à l’école”) , 2010; Zaineb Hates the Snow (“Zaineb takrahou ethelj”), 2016) and a docu-fiction (The Blade of Tunis (“Le challat de Tunis”), 2014), Kaouther Ben Hania directed her first fiction feature film, Beauty and the Dogs (“Aala Kaf Ifrit”), which was shown at numerous festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival in 2017.

Kaouther Ben Hania directs an incisive gaze at society. Whether it is a question of religion, freedom or relationships between men and women, the themes she addresses vary but are always handled with authenticity. This preoccupation with the truth explains her taste for documentaries and allows her to use fiction to reveal reality.

Thus The Blade of Tunis, a fictional tale that addresses the problem of machismo. Beauty and the Dogs draws its subject from a single incident, but strays from that tale to portray the multiple facets of a complex society. It is from this ambiguity between reality and fiction that Kaouther Ben Hania's cinema draws its strength.

Kaouther Ben Hania’s career has been built between France and the Arab world. While most of her creations portray contemporary Tunisian society, their themes extend far beyond its borders.

Kaouther Ben Hania speaks first and foremost as a citizen and a woman. Her first documentary, Imams Go to School, questions the relationship between religion and secularism in France. This open and frank gaze, which is her greatest strength, earned her the support of ACID (the French association of independent cinema) for The Blade of Tunis and a selection in the Un Certain Regard category at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival for her first fiction feature film, Beauty and the Dogs.