First Tunisian female director to compete for Palme d'Or

Kaouther Ben Hania catches the eye with the "daughters of Olfa" in Cannes

Kaouther Ben Hania tells the story of a Tunisian who faces the radicalization of two of her daughters. AFP

Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania described her film "Banat Olfa", which was screened in the official competition of the Cannes Film Festival, and deals with the story of a Tunisian woman facing the slide of two of her daughters towards extremism and terrorism, as a "therapeutic laboratory".

Ben Hania's "Daughters of Olfa", the first Tunisian female director to compete for the Palme d'Or at Cannes in half a century, was screened last Friday at the French Film Festival and sparked interest from all attendees.

A hybrid mix of documentary and fiction, Daughters of Olfa immerses viewers in the true story of Olfa Hamrouni, a Tunisian mother whose name rose to prominence around the world in 2016 after she publicly raised the issue of the radicalization of her teenage daughters Rahma and Ghofran.

The sisters left Tunisia to fight for the Islamic State terrorist organization in Libya, where they were arrested and imprisoned.

From the first minutes of the film, the spectator realizes that he is watching a work in which the real olfa directs the actress who plays her role. In some scenes, the director is shown taking questions from the actors.

Kaouther Ben Hania, who gained international fame with her film "On the Palm of a Goblin", which was screened outside the official competition of Cannes in 2017, said that "this work is also a film about cinema, acting and memories of the past."

Since its inception, the director has adopted a combination of reality and fiction.

Kaouther Ben Hania told AFP that she was interested in Olfa's story in 2016 without realizing exactly the details of the project she wanted to complete.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, the director realized how to implement her project. "What I lacked to understand why the girls went to Libya was the past, which I could only recreate with the help of actresses. And that's what I did."

She noted that the filming of the film was a "therapeutic laboratory... Many feelings prevailed in the atmosphere of filming. Many things that have not been addressed in the past have been re-addressed."

Kaouther Ben Hania clearly shows terrorist practices in the film: "I wanted to explore how violence transmits. This violence is transmitted from mother to daughter and is not limited to Tunisian society."

This transmission of violence is seen as a curse on the family. She shows in the work how a patriarchal society that crushes women is often nurtured by mothers.

After being the first female director from Tunisia to represent the country at the Oscars in 2021 with her film On the Palm of a Goblin, does she aspire to win the Palme d'Or? "We'll see," she replies, adding, "We're already very happy to be in Cannes."

• From the first minutes of the film, the spectator realizes that he is watching a work in which the real olfa directs the actress who plays her role.