• "Les Filles d'Olfa" looks back at a tragic and highly publicized case in Tunisia.
  • Kaouter Ben Hania took six years to edit this film, which mixes documentary and fiction about a mother whose daughters were imprisoned in Libya.
  • The real Olfa who plays in the film, as well as her "alter ego" played by actress Hend Sabri, help to understand the condition of Tunisian women.

A true story against a background of Islamic radicalism and an original device. The heroine of The Daughters of Olfa, whose two eldest daughters are imprisoned in Libya after being conscripted by the Islamic State in 2014, is embodied by the real Olfa Hamrouni, but assisted by an alter ego, like a small voice embodied by the actress Hend Sabri who questions her about her actions. Enough to seduce, confuse or annoy the viewer but in no way leave him indifferent. Between documentary and fiction on a hot topic, Les Filles d'Olfa, in theaters on July 5, could in any case impress the jury.

"I had a real character whose real life is and I needed to question his memory and his experience, which I could not do live with Olfa alone: I needed a fictional double," said Kahouter Ben Hania during the press conference. The Tunisian director, noticed for Beauty and the Pack and The Man Who Sold His Skin, also replaced the girls absent from the heroine with actresses and wanted to shoot in a unique setting to preserve the intimacy of their exchanges.

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Olfa's words, initially formatted as she was solicited by the press for her high-profile case in Tunisia, are becoming more and more natural and sincere. "Actors always ask me questions about the motivations of their characters, about the 'why and how,'" she explains. I found it interesting to reverse the process and call on an actress to question, bring distance and a reflection on Olfa's past. »

Her resolutely feminist message involves a description of the condition of women in Tunisia. "After hearing Olfa on the radio, my first impulse was to understand what happened," she insists. It took her six years to make Les Filles d'Olfa, which paints portraits of young girls who believe they find freedom by letting themselves be recruited. The power of their mother's pain is heartbreaking and offers the film a great chance for a presence on the charts.

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