Four Daughters, by Kaouther Ben Hania

Tunisian director and screenwriter Kaouther Ben Hania studied at the Tunis School of Arts and Cinema from 2002 to 2004. During these years, she directed several short films, including La Brèche, before training at La Fémis. In 2007, she resumed her studies at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle University in Paris and began work on three feature films. In 2014, she directed Le Challat de Tunis, a social satire on relations between men and women, followed by Beauty and the Dogs, in 2017, selected in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. With her third film, The Man Who Sold His Skin, she was selected for the Oscars in 2021. Two years later, her fourth film, Four Daughters, was screened in official competition at the Cannes Festival. 

Four Daughters follows the daily life of Olfa, a Tunisian mother of four daughters who has to cope with the disappearance of her two eldest girls. To fill the void left by their absence, director Kaouther Ben Hania invites professional actresses to take their place, creating an original cinematographic device. Using this concept, she begins a retelling of the story of Olfa and her daughters. The film becomes a journey into the intimacy of a family, combining hope, rebellion and violence, but also transmission and sisterhood. 

In Four Daughters, Kaouther Ben Hania tells the story of how and why the two eldest daughters of a Tunisian mother disappear without a trace. In this skilful and original blend of documentary and fiction, she breaks the fourth wall to create a deeply moving portrait of a family torn apart. By inviting the viewer into the intimate lives of these women, Kaouther Ben Hania paints a complex and tortured picture of a Tunisian society haunted by its ills. From patriarchy to recurring male violence, she narrates the inevitable revolution in a production that is both exciting and moving. 

Selected in official competition at the Cannes Festival 2023, Four Daughters has been sold to over twenty-five countries around the world. The Institut français de Tunisie supported the film's actors at Cannes. It was jointly awarded the Œil d'Or for documentary, along with The Mother of All Lies by Asmae El Moudir. It also won the Prix de la Citoyenneté, presided over by Maria de Medeiros, as well as the Prix de la 8e Semaine du Cinéma Positif, and a special mention from the jury of the 27th Prix François-Chalais.