Four Daughters

This unique form allows one of the most recognized directors of modern cinema (this is her second Oscar nomination), Kaouther Ben Hani, to dive deep into a subject that has been trivialized by the media. The heroine is Olfa (in her own person, but sometimes replaced on the screen by an actress), mother of four daughters. The two youngest appear in the film, the disappearance of the two oldest (played by actresses) is the subject of a passionate “investigation” that leads to one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the world - the so-called Islamic State.

Ben Hania — like Deniz Gamze Ergüven, author of the award-winning Mustang — traces the power of problematic intergenerational female communication, brings to light widely accepted domestic and systemic violence, and points to the ways in which seemingly distant political transformations shape the fate of individuals. The moving, sometimes confrontational, certainly provocative and wildly courageous Four Daughters is also a confession of faith in the strength, perseverance and solidarity of women. We are hundreds of kilometers from Tunisia, but Ben Hani's film sounds surprisingly current also in Poland.