Four Daughters (2023)

July 5, 2023 (FR) • Documentary, Drama • 108m

Overview

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. An intimate journey of hope, rebellion, violence, transmission and sisterhood that will question the very foundations of our societies.

Director

Kaouther Ben Hania

Writer

Kaouther Ben Hania

Top Billed

Olfa Hamrouni

Keywords

docudrama woman director intense depressing four daughters chrysaor kaouther ben hania

Where to watch

Free / Included

Rent

Buy

Top Billed Cast

Olfa Hamrouni

Self

Eya Chikhaoui

Self

Tayssir Chikhaoui

Self

Nour Karoui

Rahma Chikhaoui

Ichraq Matar

Ghofrane Chikaoui

Majd Mastoura

The Man

Hend Sabry

Olfa

Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali

Self

Crew

Martin Pieper

Associate Producer

Kamel Lazaar

Associate Producer

Thanassis Karathanos

Producer

Antoine Khalife

Associate Producer

Mohammed Al Turki

Associate Producer

Lassaad Kilani

Associate Producer

Rafik Kilani

Associate Producer

Habib Attia

Producer

Kaouther Ben Hania

Director

Kaouther Ben Hania

Editor

Nadim Cheikhrouha

Producer

Amine Bouhafa

Music

Farouk Laaridh

Director of Photography

Jean-Christophe Hym

Editor

Martin Hampel

Producer

Qutaiba Barhamji

Editor

Kaouther Ben Hania

Writer

Amal Attia

Sound

Anisa Ghelalla

Makeup Artist

Hamza Khedira

Location Manager

Henry Uhl

Dialogue Editor

Maxim Romasevich

Sound Re-Recording Mixer

Wided Zoghlami

First Assistant Director

Alia Baraket

Camera Operator

Bessem Marzouk

Production Design

Oumaima Bouheni

Boom Operator

Délia Jouini

Props

Manuel Laval

Sound Designer

Reviews

Brent Marchant

⭐ 4/10

December 29, 2023

Fusing fact and fiction is a precarious undertaking for a filmmaker, especially when it comes to matters of clarity and credibility. And that’s where this latest offering from writer-director Kaouther Bin Hania misses the mark. This fact-based story about Olfa Hamrouni, a Tunisian single mother who loses her two eldest daughters, Ghofrane and Rahma, to the radical recruitment efforts of ISIL while trying to protect her two youngest daughters, Eya and Tayssir, from befalling a comparable fate struggles mightily to tell a coherent tale. The film clumsily mixes interviews with family members and dramatic reenactments of significant events featuring actors portraying the principals (some inexplicably playing several roles). To complicate matters, this release features an inordinate amount of superfluous material as well as seemingly important gaps in the story, often leaving viewers scratching their heads about how the narrative gets from one unrelated (and sometimes seemingly contradictory) development to the next. Add to that a relevant revelation that doesn’t appear until late in the film (with virtually no prior back story to support it), and you’ve got a patchwork accounting of what otherwise appears to be a moving and heartfelt tale that deserves greater intelligibility and a better overall delivery. What’s more, this offering includes a considerable amount of material about how this production is being put together, a modestly interesting sidebar that might make for an informative bonus feature, but the inclusion of these largely incidental segments within the primary narrative adds little and serves more to needlessly bog down the flow of the film. Given the foregoing, I’m at a loss to understand why this “documentary” (a term I use loosely) has received the amount of attention and adulation that it has garnered, especially in film festival and awards season competitions. Bin Hania has indeed established herself as a talented filmmaker in other releases (especially those of a purely fictional nature), such as the outstanding Oscar-nominated offering, “The Man Who Sold His Skin” (2020), but she seems out of her league here. That’s unfortunate since Olfa’s saga is one that appears to be well worth telling and doesn’t receive the treatment it truly deserves.

show less

Recommended Movies

I Swear

Warfare

The Social Network

Fatherland

Status

Released

Original Language

Budget

—

Revenue

$861,000

Loading…

Four Daughters (2023)

Where to watch

Top Billed Cast

Crew

Reviews

Brent Marchant

Recommended Movies

I Swear

Warfare

The Social Network

Fatherland

Status

Original Language

Budget

Revenue

Rate This Movie

Rate This TV Show