FOUR DAUGHTERS
(directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, 2-23)
****+ (out of 5)
.
> Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania is proving herself to be an exceptional cinematic talent.
. In 2020 her intense and disquieting drama THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN earned a well-deserved Best International Feature nomination. With this even more intense examination of religious radicalization and patriarchal oppression, she has earned a Best Feature Documentary nod. What a talent! I was fascinated by the first film and bowled over by this examination of the way religion and tradition radicalizes, and nearly destroys a family of Tunisian women.
. The subject of this riveting docudrama is Olfa Hamrouni and her four daughters- two of whom are gone “missing” as their story opens. In a fascinating and potent mixture of vérité and dramatic reenactment, two actresses are hired to play the absent sisters, restaging pivotal incidents from their troubled family life. Just for good measure, an avatar is chosen for Olfa as well, to recreate scenes she might find too painful to revisit. These dramatized sequences are interspersed with almost shockingly intimate interviews reflecting on the accumulated injury of inherited trauma that drove a wedge between mother and daughters. After a lifetime being “less than” in Islamic society, where their lives were defined by the will of entitled men, they are offered the dignity and agency to tell their own stories. And they are harrowing. For anyone who might wonder why there is a natural tension between fundamentalism and secular societies like ours, it is made crystal clear here: there is an irreconcilable clash of values, though we seem to be sliding into a similar authoritarianism almost by the day.
. In one fascinating scene, the actress playing Olfa reenacts a difficult scene, while the real woman, dressed in similar garb, watches from the doorway. In an instant, their positions have shifted. The real Olfa has stepped forward to take over the storytelling, either because the actress playing her didn’t get something quite right, or because seeing her story told in a society where women are encouraged to be invisible was so empowering, she found the strength and courage to be her own mouthpiece. It is clearly a healing sort of cinematic therapy.
. Sadly, it’s a story of violent outbursts, of unspeakable abuse, of a mother passing the sins inherited from her own mother on to her children, in a perpetuation of the cycle of dysfunction. And it all plays out against the background of a country in turmoil, initiating western reforms that instigate a repressive backlash from those who want time to march backward. Ultimately, FOUR DAUGHTERS is a fascinating and ambitious rumination on memory, trauma, regret and familial love. In this regard, we are also treated to moments of bliss and joy that almost transcend the rueful pain.
. And in the final reel, when we are finally privy to the fate of the missing sisters, it comes in an image that chills to the bone, and intimates that another generation of girls is ripe for the exploiting.
– We just can’t let that happen.
*
© Kevin Paul Keelan and lastcre8iveiconoclast, 2024. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kevin Paul Keelan and lastcre8iveiconoclast with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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