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Four Daughters

Submissions for Best International Feature (Academy Awards 2024)

Les Filles d'Olfa

2023

Kaouther Ben Hania

Documentary, Hend Sabry, Khaled Abol Naga, Majd Mastoura ...

6.7

277

Documentary 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.

	Media	Author	Review
		Lovia Gyarkye The Hollywood Reporter	"A heartbreaking, formally fresh exploration of motherhood and inherited trauma in Tunisia"
		Sharon Waxman The Wrap	"[It] takes us into the intimate, inner circle of family ties to tell a larger story of our time. The pain is personal, and the impact is global"
		Richard Brody The New Yorker	"The real-life subjects, taking the lead in the restagings, deliver a revelatory, poignant blend of drama, memory, and self-scrutiny"
		Jessica Kiang Variety	"The gripping true story is overlaid with fictional, self-analyzing elements in fascinating if not always convincing ways"
		Lopa K The Review Geek	"Heart-wrenching tale made digestible with dark humour"
		Derek Smith Slant	"A harrowing metafiction about trauma and radicalization (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Ethan Vestby The Film Stage	"An admirable, if uneven experiment"
		Peyton Robinson rogerebert.com	"Four Daughters is a triumph of layered storytelling. (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Gregory Ellwood The Playlist	"[It] is genuinely hard to forget. It will linger with you for days afterward. That’s mostly due to Olfa’s heartbreaking perseverance to find her children and a wee bit of Ben Hania’s storytelling skill too"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"There is real emotional warmth and human sympathy in this otherwise somewhat flawed film (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Matthew Carey Deadline	"[It] is riveting in large part because the charismatic Olfa galvanizes attention"
		Wendy Ide Screendaily	"Potent, probing and occasionally manipulative hybrid documentary"
		Steph Green IndieWire	"Far from a gamble made in the service of naturalism, this heightened and strange piece of fiction re-enactment exposes itself for critique in a way that you almost have to respect. For its sins, it seems to —just about— succeed"
		Lovia Gyarkye The Hollywood Reporter	"'Four Daughters' is an enthralling narrative about memory, motherhood and the inherited traumas of a patriarchal society"
		Aidan Kelley Collider	"This Oscar-nominated documentary is sensational (...) The acclaimed film is a distinct portrait of a family reckoning with a painful past"
		Phil de Semlyen Time Out	"A daring and emotional act of cinematic therapy (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Beatrice Loayza The New York Times	"Despite the documentary's exciting hybridity, the conceit is more interesting in theory than it is in practice"
		Farah Cheded Paste Magazine	"A rare and deeply penetrating film for the uncommonly sensitive, joined-up view of human behavior that it takes"
		Justin Chang Los Angeles Times	"A heartbreaker about mothers and daughters, the cruelty of repression and the slippery but revealing nature of performance"
		Fabien Lemercier Cineuropa	"A very surprising oeuvre, a stripping down to the wire of a lot of suffering"

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