A true story against a backdrop of Islamic radicalism and an original device. The heroine of Daughters of Olfawhose two eldest daughters are imprisoned in Libya after being recruited by the Islamic State in 2014, is embodied by the true Olfa Hamrouni, but assisted by an alter ego, like a small voice embodied by the actress Hend Sabri who questions her about her actions. Something to seduce, confuse or annoy the viewer but in no way leave him indifferent. Between documentary and fiction on a hot topic, Olfa’s Daughtersin 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 couldn’t do live with Olfa alone: I needed a fictional double,” said said Kahouter Ben Hania during the press conference. The Tunisian director, noted 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 privacy of their exchanges.
Olfa’s words, at first formatted as she was solicited by the press for her highly publicized case in Tunisia, become more and more natural and sincere. “The 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 some distance and a reflection on Olfa’s past. »
Her resolutely feminist message goes through a description of the female condition in Tunisia. “After hearing Olfa on the radio, my first impulse was to understand what happened,” she insists. She took six years to realize Olfa’s Daughters which paints in hollow the portraits of young girls believing to find freedom by letting themselves be recruited. The power of their mother’s pain is heartbreaking and gives the film a good chance for a chart-topping appearance.