The film is an international co-production between France, Tunisia, Germany and Saudi Arabia.
In the Arab Spectacular section of the upcoming third edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival, Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania‘s Four Daughters is slated to make a notable appearance. The festival is set to take place from November 30 to December 9, 2023.
The film recently won the L’Oeil d’Or Award for Best Documentary at the Cannes Film Festival. This was the second participation of a Tunisian production in the Cannes main competition since Abdellatif Ben Ammar’s feature film A Simple Story in 1970.
Tunisia has also sent Four Daughters as its entry for the Academy Awards‘ Best Documentary Feature category.
This is the third time that Ben Hania has represented Tunisia at the Oscars, following the submission and nomination of her 2020 film The Man Who Sold His Skin and her 2017 film Beauty and the Dogs.
Four Daughters is written and directed by Ben Hania, whose 2020 film The Man Who Sold His Skin was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature.
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.
Four Daughters is produced by Tanit Films in association with Cinetelefilms and Twenty Twenty in co-production with Red Sea Film Festival Foundation, ZDF/Arte, and Jour2Fête. The film is produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha in association with Habib Attia and Thanassis Karathanos.
