The film has also been nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2024 Academy Awards.
The 39th Independent Spirit Awards, which took place on February 25 at the traditional Santa Monica beach tent location, with Aidy Bryant hosting, has awarded Four Daughters or Les Filles d’Olfa by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, with the Best Documentary Feature award.
Four Daughters, an international collaboration involving Saudi Arabia, France, Tunisia, and Germany, emerges as a poignant drama narrating the tale of a Tunisian mother on a quest for answers after her two elder daughters are radicalised and disappear to join ISIS.
Ben Hania embarked on the journey of crafting Four Daughters in 2016, inspired by a news story unfolding in Tunisia.
The film won the L’Oeil d’Or Award for Best Documentary at the Cannes Film Festival.
An ambitious exploration of rebellion, memory, and sisterhood, Four Daughters reconstructs the story of Tunisia’s Olfa Hamrouni and her daughters, unpacking a complex family history through intimate interviews and reenactments to examine how the two eldest were radicalised and disappeared. Casting professional actresses as missing eldest daughters Ghofrane and Rahma, along with Egyptian-Tunisian actress Hend Sabri as Olfa, director Kaouther Ben Hania re-stages pivotal moments in the family’s life as they tell their story, capturing moments of joy, loss, violence, and heartache. Interwoven with confessions and reflections from Olfa and younger daughters Eya and Tayssir, Four Daughters questions the nature of memory, the weight of inherited trauma, and the ties that bind mother and daughter.
Produced by Tanit Films in collaboration with Cinetelefilms and Twenty Twenty, and co-produced with Red Sea Film Festival Foundation, ZDF/Arte, and Jour2Fête, Four Daughters is the result of the creative vision of Nadim Cheikhrouha in association with Habib Attia and Thanassis Karathanos.
