Documentary filmmaking can be a mixed bag. So many topics and stories can be put into film but most of them are stories of people and situations I haven’t heard of before. Probably a lot of people haven’t heard of them. That’s a good thing though because it helps me and others learn about people and stories that need to be told. Four Daughters unconventionally tells this interesting story. 

Olfa is the mother of four beautiful daughters. Two of them are alive, Eyal and Tayssir, they are the youngest and Thama and Ghofrane are the oldest. This film tells the story of this woman and her children. The film uses an interesting and different way to tell the harrowing story of how these women struggled with their identity,  religious beliefs and what side they are on. Mom is stuck in the middle and it’s a difficult circumstance for her to be put in this situation.

Kaouther Ben Hania, the director, chooses to use a reenactment style of filmmaking to tell the story of this woman and her four daughters. He casts some actresses to play some of the chapters and they all act out the story of what happened to these two ladies. There was a lot to unpack in this story and he used everything at his disposal to put this story on the screen. From talking heads to news real footage as well as interviews.This story is filled with a lot of intriguing subject matter. Mostly Islamic topics such as 

the girls had to wear hijabs, and niqab. How they fell into Jihad and the Islamic State and studied the Koran, celebrated Ramadan and lived in a Mosque. While the others believed in sharia law,  and lived in  Tunisia, Morocco, The other moved to Libya. This was where they stayed with their husband until they were arrested after a bombing. 

The younger sisters were distraught about this but they took part in the film and acted out their roles because they loved their sisters so much. This is a way for them to show how much their sisters did was wrong and what they ended up doing was right and how it saved them. There is a bit of breaking the Fourth wall in the documentary but the emotion and heart of the story truly showed through in the end.

Olfa did everything she could to help these girls including getting them jobs as cleaning ladies. She was a good mother to her girls. They all learned the hard way how terrible terrorism truly is and they took sides in the end. The film is a stark reminder of how bad this situation was for everybody involved. Four Daughters took an interesting way to tell its story but it was still very effective in getting its message across. They world is better off though because two beautiful girls are still with their mother that cares about them and loves them. The documentary is worth watching because of their story.

3 ½ Stars

Dan Skip Allen