Four Daughters (Arabic: بنات ألفة, romanized: Banāt Olfa, French: Les Filles d'Olfa, lit. 'Olfa's Daughters') is a 2023 Arabic-language documentary film directed by Kaouther Ben Hania.[3] The film tells the story of a Tunisian family after two of four daughters leave to join Daesh fighters in Libya. The filmmaker invites professional actors to stand in for the missing daughters and others in the retelling of the story. The film is an international co-production between France, Tunisia, Germany, and Saudi Arabia.[4]
Olfa is the mother of four daughters in Tunisia. Her two older daughters, after becoming radicalised, leave the family to join Daesh fighters in Libya - first one, then the other. Director Kaouther Ben Hania uses professional actors to bring the viewer closer to the life stories of Olfa and her daughters.[7] The film features Olfa and her two remaining daughters, who retell the story along with the actors standing in for the sisters and the various men in their lives.[8]
Tunisian Olfa Hamrouni rose to international prominence in April 2016 when she publicized the radicalization of her two teenage daughters, Rahma and Ghofrane Chikhaoui. Both teenagers had left Tunisia to fight alongside the Islamic State (IS) in Libya. Hamrouni publicly criticized the Tunisian authorities for not preventing her daughter Rahma from leaving the country.[9] After the arrest of the two women by Libyan forces, the authorities again did not react. Hamrouni is also said to have been prevented from leaving the country in order to look for her daughters in Libya on her own.[10]
Production
Four Daughters is written and directed by Kaouther Ben Hania.[1]Cinematography is by Farouk Laaridh, and the film is edited by Kaouther Ben Hania, Qutaiba Barhamji, and Jean-Christophe Hym.[1] Amine Bouhafa composed the score.[1]
The film is produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha at Paris-based Tanit Films; Habib Attia at Tunis-based Cinétéléfilms;[11] Thanassis Karathanos and Martin Hampel at Berlin-based Twenty Twenty Vision Filmproduktion GmbH;[12] and co-produced by Red Sea Film Festival Foundation, ZDF/ARTE, and Jour2Fête.[13]
Release
Four Daughters was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival,[14] where it had its world premiere on 19 May 2023.[15] This is the second participation of a Tunisian production in the Cannes main competition since Abdellatif Ben Ammar's feature film A Simple Story in 1970.[16] The film was theatrically released in France by Jour2Fête on 5 July 2023.[17] It was released in Tunisia on 20 September 2023 by Hakka Distribution.[18] It was also invited at the 28th Busan International Film Festival in 'Documentary Showcase' section and will be screened in October 2023.[19]
Kino Lorber gave the film a limited theatrical release in the United States on 27 October 2023.[20]
Reception
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 96% based on 79 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Four Daughters' unique approach to documenting real-life horror is a formal gamble that only underscores the bravery and resilience of its subjects."[21] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 21 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[22]Four Daughters received an average rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars on the French website AlloCiné, based on 28 reviews.[23]
