[ad_1]
Julien M. Hekimian/Getty Images
Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar nominee Four daughters (Les Filles d’Olfa) won Best Documentary at the César Awards, the French equivalent of the Academy Awards.
The ceremony that crowned Anatomy of a fall for Best Film, took place on Friday night at the Olympia Theater in Paris. victory for four daughters It comes in the middle of final Oscar voting, which runs until 5 p.m. PT on Tuesday.
In accepting the award, Ben Hania, born in Tunisia, focused her attention on the situation in Gaza, which Israel invaded after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7 that killed some 1,200 men, women and children and in which Hamas seized more than 240 hostages (about a quarter of the hostages are believed to be dead). Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 10,000 Palestinian children have died since the start of Israel’s bombing and ground campaign in Gaza.
Director Kaouther Ben Hania and producer Nadim Cheikhrouha with their trophies after winning the Best Documentary award at the César Awards.
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
“Nowadays, saying ‘stop killing children’ is becoming a radical demand,” Ben Hania said from the stage. “It’s completely mind-blowing… We’re not going to stay silent; We will not be intimidated. The massacre must stop. We have to use our authority because what is happening there is horrible, horrible. No one can say, “I didn’t know.” This is the first massacre broadcast live, live from our phones. We know. And this has to end.”
‘Four daughters’
Kino Lorber
four daughters tells the story of Olfa Hamrouni, a working-class Tunisian woman who raised four girls as a single mother. After the Arab Spring shook Tunisia, the two eldest daughters rebelled against their mother’s strict rules and embraced something much more extreme: the radical Islamist dictates of ISIS. Rahma and Ghofrane, barely teenagers, fled to Libya, where they were quickly married off to ISIS militants.
In the film, Ben Hania uses actors to play the missing daughters in reenactments, as well as Hind Sabri, an Arab film star, to play Olfa. four daughters premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival last May, where it shared the L’Oeil d’or award for best documentary of the festival with The mother of all lies (Directed by Asmae El Moudir).
Olfa Hamrouni, star of ‘Four Daughters’, and actress Hind Sabri attend the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
The documentary faced stiff competition for the César Award, going up against four other contenders, including In the Adamant, directed by Nicolás Philibert. That film won the Golden Bear at last year’s Berlin Film Festival.
four daughters is produced by Tanit Films in collaboration with Cinetelefilms and Twenty Twenty, and co-produced with Red Sea Film Festival Foundation, ZDF/Arte and Jour2Fête.
After winning the César Awards, the Red Sea Film Festival sent out a congratulatory Tweet on X/Twitter, noting: “The Red Sea Film Foundation is proud to have supported this exceptional project through the #RedSeaFund.”
four daughtersreleased in the United States by Kino Lorber, has grossed more than $100,000 at the domestic box office, more than any of the other documentaries nominated for an Oscar this year, which include 20 days in Mariupol, The eternal memory, Bobi Wine: the people’s presidentand kill a tiger.