By John Corrado

The latest work from Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania (the Oscar-nominated The Man Who Sold His Skin), the Oscar-nominated documentary Four Daughters is a chilling and fascinating study of how radicalization takes hold.

The film is formally audacious in its mix of documentary and dramatic reenactments, blending subjects and actors to tell the story of Olfa Hamrouni, a mother of four daughters in Tunisia. The two youngest daughters, Eya and Tayssir, are still with her and very present in the film.

But Olfa’s two oldest daughters, Ghofrane and Rahma, have disappeared, and are played by actors Nour Karoui and Ichrak Matar, who bear an eerily striking resemblance to their real life counterparts. So much so that Eya and Tayssir are able to easily and believably recreate the sisterly bond they had with Ghofrane and Rahma with Karoui and Matar in the film.

This gambit of having actors embed themselves with the real life subjects in order to tell the story provides the basis for the film’s structure, with actress Hend Sabri taking over the role of Olfa in flashbacks and reenactments that are too painful for her to go through. As Sabri spends time with Olfa and her daughters to better understand the role she is playing, the film becomes a larger statement on performance; both in terms of film acting, and the roles that women are forced to play in a theocratic, patriarchal society.

In its candid moments between the two daughters and the two actresses, as well as the the mother and the actress playing her, the film reveals deeper truths about the relationships between these women and what they have experienced. The film plays out as a bit of a mystery as to what exactly happened to the two eldest daughters, but we know that something darker is at play.

Through this, Four Daughters is able to compellingly explore how young women can become drawn to radical forms of Islamism, leading to several unnerving revelations. The result is a gripping, inventively structured documentary film that is disturbing but vital in its insight, and sadly all too relevant. One of the best documentaries of 2023.

Film Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)

Four Daughters opens in theatres in limited release on January 26th in Toronto (at TIFF Lightbox) and Vancouver, before expanding to other cities in the coming weeks. It’s being distributed in Canada by Mongrel Media.