November 24, 2023
FILM: FOUR DAUGHTERS
DIRECTED BY: KAOUTHER BEN HANIA
RATING: 2 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Olfa is a woman from Tunisia who raised four daughters. A few years ago, two of them disappeared. Filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania is tasked with telling their true story. The twist here is that two actresses are hired to play the missing, eldest girls while Olfa and the remaining daughters, Eya and Tayssir, play themselves. It’s an unusual experience for all of them, and for viewers, as emotions range from deep sadness to fond remembrances of better days.
That is the premise for this documentary and I found some of it to be difficult to embrace. We get plenty of interviews from Olfa who honestly tells about her experience and freely admits the part she played in possibly driving her girls away. A substitute actress is hired to play her when recreations pose too harsh for Olfa to live through again. As such, there are scenes in which she abuses her missing daughters for defying female conventions and laws. One of them goes through a Goth period and dyes her hair blue. There is also a whole conversion towards rebelling BY wearing hijabs. Some of the scenes seem improvised but others may have been rehearsed. It’s not clear how much preparation went into the development of many of them.
It’s a strange situation as Olfa, and the two younger daughters, are confronting things they did when they were a bit younger. The question becomes: to what end? Has Olfa really learned much about herself? There’s a suggestion here that some of her own behavior was a mirror for how her own mother mistreated her. The film posits that generational behavior and actions are often passed down to descendants. (Not a surprising statement.) Still, it’s not clear why some of this is necessary to be relived.
To be fair there are some interesting discussions between all of the five women involved in this project. Sex comes up often. Olfa doesn’t like kissing and rarely had sex with her husband. They debate what a woman should be allowed to do. They question who owns a woman’s body: the patriarchy or women themselves? Such conversations certainly raise an awareness about the varying attitudes among women in male dominated Muslim societies.
All of this allows the women to bond and feel like they are part of a “real” family. After a while, the film begins to feel like a half-staged, half-behind the scenes document of the story they are trying to recreate. Most of it is shot in a relatively small apartment and the feeling becomes a bit claustrophobic.
Still, the film seems to give the remaining sisters a cathartic release. They seem pretty well-adjusted but likely scarred on some level. It’s hard to say who gets the most of out of this experience: the younger girls or Olfa. Viewers might feel emotional near the end or, as in this reviewer’s experience, a bit perplexed at the purpose of the whole project.
Four Daughters opens this week in limited release, including the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago. It is Tunisia’s choice to represent the country for a possible Best International Film Oscar nomination.
FILM: FOUR DAUGHTERS
DIRECTED BY: KAOUTHER BEN HANIA
RATING: 2 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Olfa is a woman from Tunisia who raised four daughters. A few years ago, two of them disappeared. Filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania is tasked with telling their true story. The twist here is that two actresses are hired to play the missing, eldest girls while Olfa and the remaining daughters, Eya and Tayssir, play themselves. It’s an unusual experience for all of them, and for viewers, as emotions range from deep sadness to fond remembrances of better days.
That is the premise for this documentary and I found some of it to be difficult to embrace. We get plenty of interviews from Olfa who honestly tells about her experience and freely admits the part she played in possibly driving her girls away. A substitute actress is hired to play her when recreations pose too harsh for Olfa to live through again. As such, there are scenes in which she abuses her missing daughters for defying female conventions and laws. One of them goes through a Goth period and dyes her hair blue. There is also a whole conversion towards rebelling BY wearing hijabs. Some of the scenes seem improvised but others may have been rehearsed. It’s not clear how much preparation went into the development of many of them.
It’s a strange situation as Olfa, and the two younger daughters, are confronting things they did when they were a bit younger. The question becomes: to what end? Has Olfa really learned much about herself? There’s a suggestion here that some of her own behavior was a mirror for how her own mother mistreated her. The film posits that generational behavior and actions are often passed down to descendants. (Not a surprising statement.) Still, it’s not clear why some of this is necessary to be relived.
To be fair there are some interesting discussions between all of the five women involved in this project. Sex comes up often. Olfa doesn’t like kissing and rarely had sex with her husband. They debate what a woman should be allowed to do. They question who owns a woman’s body: the patriarchy or women themselves? Such conversations certainly raise an awareness about the varying attitudes among women in male dominated Muslim societies.
All of this allows the women to bond and feel like they are part of a “real” family. After a while, the film begins to feel like a half-staged, half-behind the scenes document of the story they are trying to recreate. Most of it is shot in a relatively small apartment and the feeling becomes a bit claustrophobic.
Still, the film seems to give the remaining sisters a cathartic release. They seem pretty well-adjusted but likely scarred on some level. It’s hard to say who gets the most of out of this experience: the younger girls or Olfa. Viewers might feel emotional near the end or, as in this reviewer’s experience, a bit perplexed at the purpose of the whole project.
Four Daughters opens this week in limited release, including the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago. It is Tunisia’s choice to represent the country for a possible Best International Film Oscar nomination.