Four Daughters

2023 1h 48m FR

👍

7.4

SOLID

★7.4TMDB · 113

DocumentaryDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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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

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Writers: Kaouther Ben Hania
Languages: Arabic, English, French
Countries: France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Released 3 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Arabic, English, French.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 4 countries: France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, shot by Farouk Laaridh. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Jean-Christophe Hym shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Olfa Hamrouni and Eya Chikhaoui and Tayssir Chikhaoui carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt27502426 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Kaouther Ben Hania directs. Farouk Laaridh behind the camera. Jean-Christophe Hym cuts. Produced in France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia. Dialogue in Arabic, English, French.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 3 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Arabic, English, French.
3International production across 4 countries: France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia.
4Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, shot by Farouk Laaridh. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor Jean-Christophe Hym shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Olfa Hamrouni and Eya Chikhaoui and Tayssir Chikhaoui carry the top of the cast.
7IMDB entry: tt27502426 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Farouk Laaridh
Editing: Jean-Christophe Hym
Production design: Bessem Marzouk
Makeup / hair: Anisa Ghelalla
Sound: Manuel Laval
Runtime: 108 min · 1h 48m
Status: Released
Box office: $861,000
Original language: FR
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Four Daughters (2023)

Also by

Kaouther Ben Hania

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Brent Marchant2023-12-29
★ 4/10
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.

Production companies