Tropic Sprockets / Four Daughters

By Ian Brockway

“Four Daughters” is a labyrinthine documentary by Kaouther Ben Hania centering on a mother Olfa and her four children. Two of them, Ghofrane and Rhama, joined a Jihadist terror group. The film is a blend of actual fact and fiction, interwoven so seamlessly that one is never sure which is which. One thing is certain: this family has demons.

Olfa is a hard-bitten Tunisian mother. She is forced to act as a man to protect her family, as men would try to break in. Olfa herself has been subjected to violence with a husband who repeatedly rapes her. As the film progresses Tunisia becomes independent. The very same day Olfa becomes self-aware and frees herself. However, and disturbingly so, she abuses her daughters, beating one daughter almost to death. At one point in the film, she admits that she hates girls.

There are many jarring scenes in the film involving blood and aggression. The director of the film brings in female actors to play Olfa and her daughters, but in no time at all Olfa breaks down on camera and cannot continue filming.

The exorcism segment led by Olfa with an actor is quite striking and rattles the nerves, as does a rape scene where the actor shouts to stop the film.

Some of the film plays like a Tunisian version of Brian De Palma’s “Carrie” with a monster mother.

As the documentary progresses it becomes hard to discern what actually occurred in the family and what is fiction. Many things and events go bump in the night.

Eerie it is to see the actresses joke about the niqāb and the burka and how it creates mystery.

The reenactments are interspersed with segments of the two remaining girls that will bring you to tears.

The unsettling condition of the film is that one gets a genuine striking feeling of violence as a spirit, traveling from father to mother and passing to the two daughters Ghofrane and Rhama, now in prison.

This is a real life ahajiya (puzzle), and it is sure to startle and vex.

Write Ian at [email protected].

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