After winning the L’Oeil d’or award for best documentary following its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s movie “Four Daughters” will now screen at Jeddah’s Red Sea International Film Festival.
Ben Hania is no stranger to critical acclaim and saw her 2020 feature “The Man Who Sold His Skin” nominated at the Academy Awards in the best international feature film category. Tunisia has now submitted her latest film in the same category for the 2024 Oscars, with the nominations yet to be announced.
She spoke to Arab News about the challenges involved in filming the flick.
She said: “It’s not about one scene or another. It’s about how to translate all the complexity of this story, all the layers of this story, because it’s a movie about motherhood.
“It’s a movie about transmission between generations, transmission of trauma also. It’s a movie about Tunisia. All those themes were very important to me.”
The film tells the true story of Olfa Hamrouni, a heart-broken Tunisian mother of four daughters. The two eldest, aged 15 and 16, disappear in 2015 after being radicalized by extremists.
Ben Hania started working on “Four Daughters” in 2016, when she first heard the story on the news in Tunisia.
“I started thinking about making a documentary about it. But when I met Olfa and her daughters, I thought that I could do a fly-on-the-wall documentary. It took me some years to come up with the actual form of the movie,” she added.
Professional actresses filled in for the missing sisters, while renowned Egyptian actress Hend Sabri replaced Hamrouni as memories started to weigh heavy on the mom. This created a unique hybrid of fiction and documentary in the co-production between Tunisia, France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia.
Ben Hania said: “I needed actresses in the movie directed by the real character so we could summon the past and have access to their trauma.
“It’s Olfa who gave me the idea because she’s a huge fan of Hend Sabri, so I thought it would be very interesting to ask Hend to play Olfa and be directed by her.
“The shooting was very intense because it’s a real story. It’s not an easy life. So, it was very intense, but also it was funny, because they are really funny.
“Their way to cope with this tragedy is to laugh about it, which was really amazing, so we were laughing and crying,” she added.
Bader spoke to Arab News about the initiative, saying it was important because “we as women have beautiful and powerful stories to tell, and the support of the industry is needed to not only help integrate us better but also recognize our work and the great stories that so many incredible Arab women are telling for the first time.”
Nuha El-Tayeb, content director for the Middle East, Africa and Turkiye at Netflix, echoed those sentiments, telling Arab News that it was critical to spotlight women, in particular, when it comes to the film industry in the region.
“It’s critical to authentic storytelling. Amplifying underrepresented voices, which includes Arab women, gives more people a chance to see their lives reflected on screen,” she said. “Arab women filmmakers are shifting perspectives and revolutionizing the industry in the region, creating Oscar-nominated films and representing the region at international film festivals and major platforms. It’s clear that they have important stories to tell.”
El-Tayeb went on to highlight some of the projects that the initiative has supported over the years — including the “Because She Created” writing program, AFAC-Netflix Creative Equity Fund and “Women in Film,” a training program for emerging talent.
“‘Because She Created,’ while born in the Arab world, is a borderless endeavor. Through content on the service, financial grants, upskilling initiatives, and exposure at regional film festivals, we’re providing an avenue for female storytellers to help break the glass ceiling for women in entertainment,” El-Tayeb said.
She added that when it comes to pitches, Netflix is interested in “stories that are authentic and relatable. Stories with universal themes that have broader appeal and can resonate with our members at home.”
When it comes to the entertainment industry in Saudi Arabia, Bader noted the importance of representation on screen.
“It’s a young industry,” the actress added of the film scene in Saudi Arabia. “And we have been waiting to see representation in an authentic way in film and culture. We’ve been waiting to tell our stories and see them on screen, and it’s incredible to witness the transformation,” she said.
When it comes to encouraging Saudi Arabia’s youth to see film as a viable career, the actress believes education is key.
“Art is for everyone, and it can be a viable career if one is willing to take that risk. It’s not easy to be an artist, it’s an emotional job and it’s risky because not everyone can relate, but that’s exactly the reason why it’s even more important to integrate art in formal education to support future generations and support their career choices,” she said.
Credit: Arab News
