76th Cannes Film Festival: A Woman’s Cinematic Resistance Against The Islamic State

Tunisian filmmaker Kouthar Ben Hania’s Four Daughters is a powerful cinematic resistance to the Muslim extremist organization Islamic State (ISIS), which was screened in the Main Competition section of the 76th Cannes Film Festival. This is a bold documentary that shows that the people who are harmed by the Islamic State are Islamic and Muslims, especially Muslim women. The victims of their cruelty, sexual exploitation, and violence are Muslim women all over the world.

On one hand, such women have to go through heartbreaking exploitation while on the other hand, they have to spend the rest of their lives in jail if they are freed from the Islamic State or rescued by international agencies because similar laws (zero tolerance) are made.

Olfa Hamrani

In April 2016, Olfa Hamrani, a divorcee from the Tunisian seaside town of Souche, created a stir in the media by accusing the government that two of her four daughters were missing and the government was not helping her in finding them. He also said that after the Arab Spring (2010), the softening of politicians in Muslim countries towards jihadi clerics and imams has helped the Islamic State.

It was later learned that both the elder daughters of Olfa Hamrani, Rahma and Gufran, have gone to fight for the Islamic State in Syria and Libya after falling prey to ‘love jihad’. After the Islamic Revolution, the pressure on Muslim girls to wear hijab and burqa increased. One day some jihadi boys throw hijabs on Rahma and Gufran at the crossroads of the city, and from here the foundation of radicalization is laid.

Islamic radicalization

There is real beauty and independence in the routines of all four of Olfa’s daughters. Everything changes after Islamic radicalization. Seeing life before and after the hijab burqa through the eyes of these girls makes us emotional at times. The roles of Rahma and Gufran are played by Ichrak Matar and Noor Karoi, while the other two daughters, Eya and Tayseer, play their own roles.

The role of Olfa is played by Hend Sabri and Olfa himself. It is funny to see in several scenes that Olfa keeps correcting Hend Sabri’s mistakes. In the symphony of all-around emotional relationships between the four sisters and their mother, the entire film forms an unseen collage of our times. It features actors and real characters re-enacting the true story.

Terrorist organization Islamic State

There is no separate political commentary in the film, but through the human suffering of these five women, the director has said everything that the politicians and rulers of Muslim countries seem to be avoiding accepting. Despite this, Islamic terrorism will destroy them first. Here we present the film ‘Rebel,” based on the true events of Belgium’s Adil Al Arabi and Bilal Fallah. It is a heartbreaking adventure film that unfolds layer by layer the entire enigma of the terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIS).

The film also tells us that women love and men often cheat.

Wang Bing’s long documentary

In the competition section, Wang Bing’s long documentary ‘Youth’ (Spring) of China is also in the discussion because of its political narrative. The film was shot over a year among textile workers in the industrial city of Zhili in the Wujing district of Huzhou province, 150 kilometres from Shanghai. Out of 600 hours of footage, the first part of three and a half hours has come to the fore.

Most of these factory workers are young boys and girls who have come from remote Chinese villages in search of a better life and are working day and night. Their living, eating, and working conditions are appalling. Only a dream keeps them alive: that one day they will have their own house and be able to settle their family. The camera creates a different effect by repeating their boring routine over and over again.

Amidst piles of garbage, mud, and darkness around the dormitory and the factory, the dream of a better life slips away as the contractor increases the target of work. These young labourers, who are twenty to thirty years old, start getting old. The camera is all the time recording the changes in their relationship—their little joys, their jealousy and rivalry, their love and anger, and their growing despair.

The film shows that he has no plans for a better life for the young workers whose hard work has made China the leader in the manufacturing sector today. China has thrown an entire young generation into the furnace of work, day and night, like a machine.