How ‘Four Daughters’ Turned a Family’s Tragedy Into Therapy

In “Four Daughters,” Kaouther Ben Hania explores the story of Olfa Hamrouni, a Tunisian woman whose two eldest daughters, Ghofrane and Rahma, became radicalized and in 2015 joined the Islamic State in Libya, where they are now in prison. Ghofrane give birth to a baby girl, who lives with her in prison.

Ben Hania’s genre-blending film interweaves documentary-style interviews with Hamrouni and her two younger daughters, Eya and Tayssir, with dramatic reenactments by the Hamrouni women and three actresses, including the Egyptian-Tunisian star Hend Sabri. It is a powerful meditation on intergenerational trauma, memory and healing. “Four Daughters” played in the main competition at Cannes, where it won the Golden Eye (L’oeil d’or) prize for best documentary (shared with Asmae El Moudir’s “The Mother of All Lies”).