Latest news with #HafsiaHerzi
CNA
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNA
Dissident Iranian filmmaker Panahi wins top prize at Cannes
CANNES: "It Was Just an Accident" by dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi won the Palme d'Or for best film at the Cannes Festival on Saturday (May 24). The highly political but wry film tells the tale of five ordinary Iranians confronted with a man they believed tortured them in jail. Panahi, who has been imprisoned twice in his home country and banned from making films, used his acceptance speech to urge Iranians to work towards freedom. "I believe this is the moment to call on all people, all Iranians, with all their differing opinions, wherever they are in the world - in Iran or abroad - to allow me to ask for one thing," Panahi said, according to a translation. "Let's set aside all problems, all differences. What matters most right now is our country and the freedom of our country." Brazil's Wagner Moura won the best actor award for his performance in police thriller "The Secret Agent", while France's Nadia Melliti clinched the gong for best actress. Melliti, appearing in her first film, plays a 17-year-old Muslim girl in Paris struggling with her homosexuality in Hafsia Herzi's widely acclaimed "The Little Sister". "Sentimental Value" by Norway's Joachim Trier, a moving family drama given a 19-minute standing ovation on Thursday, picked up the second prize Grand Prix. The victory for Panahi is a huge endorsement for a director who has become a symbol of defiance in his country, where his films are routinely banned. He has vowed to return to Tehran after the festival despite the risks of prosecution. SABOTAGE Saturday's closing ceremony was the final act of a drama-filled day in Cannes that saw the glitzy seaside resort suffer a more than five-hour power cut. The outage knocked out traffic lights and had visitors and locals scrambling for paper money because cash machines were out-of-order and restaurants were left unable to process card payments. Local officials said a suspected arson attack on the substation about 12 kilometres (seven miles) northwest of central Cannes had caused a major fire at around 2:00 am (0000 GMT). Along the coast in the opposite direction, a pylon which carries a high-voltage line was discovered with three of its four legs damaged, the local prosecutor's office announced. German director Mascha Schilinski joked that she had "had difficulty writing her speech" because of the black-out as she accepted the jury prize for widely hailed "Sound of Falling". POLITICS Beyond the official competition, the French Riviera has been buzzing with A-listers this year including Tom Cruise, pop sensation Charli XCX and model Bella Hadid. Beyond the champagne-filled beach parties, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza as well as US President Donald Trump have been major talking-points. US filmmaker Todd Haynes warned of the "barbaric US presidency", while Chilean-American actor Pedro Pascal admitted it was "scary" to speak out against President Donald Trump. The Gaza war has been on the minds of some of the festival's guests, with more than 900 cinema figures signing an open letter denouncing "genocide" in the Palestinian territory, according to organisers. Cannes jury head Juliette Binoche, "Schindler's List" star Ralph Fiennes, US indie director Jim Jarmusch and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange - in town to present a documentary he stars in - were among the signatories. But UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, said the festival felt like a "bubble of indifference" when she visited it Friday. AWARDS Other secondary awards were announced before Saturday's closing ceremony. The first Chechen film to screen at the Cannes Festival - "Imago" - won best documentary, while the film about the life of Assange - "The Six Billion Dollar Man" - picked up a special jury prize on Friday. In the secondary Un Certain Regard section, Chilean filmmaker Diego Cespedes won the top prize for "The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo", which follows a group of trans women living in a desert mining town in the 1980s. On a lighter note, a sheepdog which features in Icelandic family drama "The Love That Remains" won the Palm Dog prize for canine performers in festival films.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Little Sister' Review: Coming-of-Age Drama About a French Muslim's Lesbian Awakening Is a Low-Key Stunner
Just like American cinema never wearies of road movies, French cinema has long been littered with sexual coming-of-age films: tales of young people exploring their bodies, appetites and identities over the course of a sun-soaked summer vacation, a tumultuous school year or a few formatively horny days. As with any popular category of movie, a certain numbing redundancy — if not laziness — sets in after a while; few recent entries have had the tingle of discovery that allowed Maurice Pialat's To Our Loves, André Téchiné's Wild Reeds and various Catherine Breillat works to fire up our memories and imaginations, to say nothing of our loins. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'The President's Cake' Review: An Iraqi Schoolgirl's Odyssey Among Grown-ups Is a Tragicomic Gem 'All Quiet on the Western Front' Writer Lesley Paterson Penning Bertha Benz Film (Exclusive) 'The Great Arch' Review: Claes Bang Captivates as an Unknown Danish Architect Battling French Bureaucrats to Build His Monumental Work Occasionally, however, a new one comes along that cuts right through the crowd with its confidence and texture, its erotic charge and lingering nostalgic ache. Hafsia Herzi's superb The Little Sister (La petite dernière), about a French Muslim teenager's lesbian awakening, is such a film, joining Abdellatif Kechiche's Blue Is the Warmest Color, Rebecca Zlotowski's An Easy Girl and Téchiné's Being 17 in the very top tier of contemporary examples. Vibrantly felt yet impressively controlled — and blessed with a stone-cold stunner of a central performance — The Little Sister is indeed an instant classic of the genre, as moving in its humanism as it is sexy. The particular intersection of communities depicted here (LGBTQ and Muslim), as well as a handful of Sapphic scenes for the ages, gives the drama an undeniable jolt of freshness. But the film stands easily on its own merits, dispelling any doubts that may have greeted its inclusion in this year's main competition. This third directorial outing from 38-year-old Herzi (a César-winning actress who exploded onto the scene in Kechiche's 2007 The Secret of the Grain) — her first two, while well-received at home, never secured U.S. distribution — is worthy of attention well beyond French borders; in a just world, it would be a major international breakout for both the helmer and lead Nadia Melliti, whose gorgeously modulated body-and-soul performance is one of the most auspicious screen debuts I've seen in a while. Though the subject matter, with its core conflict between personal desires and religious pressures, might have lent itself to didacticism or preachiness, Herzi proves a supremely nimble and nuanced storyteller. Freely adapting Fatima Daas' autobiographical 2020 novel, she boasts an unerring sense of pacing, a ripe naturalistic visual style, and an agile way with tone, marrying humor, heat and surging emotion. Perhaps less surprising is Herzi's success in coaxing across-the-board terrific work from the cast, down to the smallest role; even characters who appear fleetingly make vivid impressions. The film opens on high-school senior Fatima (Melliti) performing religious rituals — washing herself before prayer; kneeling and bowing, dressed in full hijab — at home in the working-class projects outside Paris. It's a world Herzi fills in with warmth and economy, using deft brushstrokes to immerse us in her protagonist's life. The family apartment is full of typical irritations and affections, with teasing older sisters, a doting mother bustling about the kitchen and a TV-glued father griping good-naturedly from the couch. Her long, raven-black hair pulled into a no-nonsense ponytail, Fatima is a watchful tomboy with a talent for soccer and a group of rowdy male friends (one of whose salaciously embellished account of a date with a pair of 'MILFs' is a crude comic high point). She suffers from asthma, attending check-ins with an endearingly nerdy doctor. She's kinda-sorta seeing a courtly but conservative young Muslim man who wants to take things to the next level — marriage, kids, etc. Her halfhearted responses to his overtures amount to a clear 'Thanks, but no thanks.' Fatima is also a gifted student, captivated in class as her buddies goof off around her. When their banter turns homophobic — in that banal way that seems timeless for certain teenage boys — she stays silent. In one wrenching scene, she even contributes to the bullying of a gay classmate, lashing out violently when he shifts the spotlight onto her sexuality. Fatima's terror of being outed is palpable here, her poised stoicism giving way to an almost feral panic and shame. One night, she creates a profile on a lesbian hook-up app. Soon after, Fatima is sitting in a car with an older woman, Ingrid (Sophie Garagnon), getting an explanatory (as opposed to experiential) crash course in lesbian sexual 'specialties.' Part of what makes the scene sweet and spicy and unexpected is how quickly Ingrid pivots from seductress to mentor. Intuiting that what Fatima wants at this point isn't to have sex, but to talk about sex — to hear it demystified and destigmatized — Ingrid draws her out of her shell, fielding questions with flirty, faintly wistful amusement. It's an initiation that readies Fatima for a more lasting connection with Ji-Na, a 20something nurse (the electric Park Ji-Min of Return to Seoul) whom she meets-cute at an asthma management seminar. Later, as the two quiz each other about their backgrounds, hobbies and hopes over a Seine-side dinner, we feel the ticklish pleasure of their mutual curiosity. Herzi shows us something simple, and universal, yet rarely actually captured onscreen: the bit-by-bit building of a human connection. Fatima and Ji-Na are something of an odd couple, the former's panther-like litheness and circumspection contrasting with the latter's more direct, puppyish energy. But their bond makes sense, partly because both are ethnic outsiders in France: Fatima is the only member of her family not born in Algeria, while Ji-Na moved to Paris from Korea at age five. As their relationship progresses from first kisses (this is a film in which people really kiss) to Pride March, nights on the town to noodles at home, the movie conjures a whole world of intimacy and freedom beginning to open to Fatima. Things, of course, don't go as planned, but life goes on. Fatima starts university, studying philosophy and making new friends — a merry band of queer boys, quite the corrective to her macho high-school crew. She also falls in with some slightly older lesbians, led by Cassandra (Mouna Soualem, divine), an irrepressible, ringlet-headed sexpot with a smoky gasp of a voice. Immediately clocking Fatima's broken heart, Cassandra barrels past her defenses, taking our protagonist under her wing (and into her and her girlfriend's bed). Scenes of them together nail the euphoric thrill of youthful experimentation and self-discovery. But following every night of ecstasy comes a lonely, bleary-eyed morning-after. Melliti has a proud, almost regal gaze that, in these moments, clouds over with melancholy and anxiousness. Fatima knows she's changing — drifting in fundamental ways from her family and upbringing, but also remaining on the margins of a community she doesn't yet claim as her own. That type of liminal existence feels untenable for someone as essentially honest as Fatima, and the question that haunts the film is why she, or anyone in today's France, should have to choose between integral parts of herself. The Little Sister is clear-eyed about the virtual impossibility, for some religious LGBTQ people, of disclosing their sexual preference to loved ones. Still, Herzi is steadfastly non-judgmental in her vision of Islam and its centrality in Fatima's life. The filmmaker isn't interested in any scathing indictment of religion, but rather in how layered and complex identities are, and in how Fatima's refusal to deny either her sexuality or her spirituality is in itself an act of faith — in herself, in an Islam that doesn't seem to have room for her, and in a country whose historic disdain for multiculturalism and communitarianism means that it may be unprepared for her as well. In some ways, The Little Sister brings to mind Dee Rees' Pariah, another queer coming-of-age story set against a tradition-bound domestic backdrop. But while the main character's mother in that movie was an antagonistic figure, Fatima's parents are portrayed as kind, not dogmatic or ostentatiously pious. (Islamic strictures are articulated only late in the film by an imam whom Fatima consults in desperation.) Fatima's mom (Amina Ben Mohamed), especially, is a nurturing presence; her sighing with pride as she affixes her daughter's diploma to the wall is a touching grace note. She also appears at least outwardly oblivious to the nature of her daughter's struggle — or so we think until a penultimate scene that's like a small exhalation of breath we weren't even aware of holding. That this exchange between Fatima and her mother stops short of being an explicit breakthrough is significant, an acknowledgement that the outcomes of situations like these are often imperfect. The Little Sister is imbued, finally, with a bittersweet acceptance of the limitations of the people, institutions and communities we hold dear. Herzi's filmmaking is polished and precise, though never fastidious; the movie crackles with loose, lived-in vitality and moment-to-moment authenticity. Working with DP Jérémie Attard, Herzi frames her actors tenderly, making generous use of close-ups without hovering or ogling. Géraldine Mangenot's editing and Amine Bouhafa's lovely score, by tuns churning and contemplative, help give the proceedings an enrapturing ebb and flow. The film's perfect final shot has a piercing ambiguity. A casual glimpse of Fatima that blossoms with meaning in retrospect, epitomizing her individuality, her tenacity and resolve, it's at once shattering and profoundly hopeful. That it can be felt in such diametrically differing ways at the same time is a testament to the unassuming richness of this wise, altogether wonderful film. 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Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Little Sister' Review: Hafsia Herzi Directs a Modest but Empathetic Coming-Out Tale
It says less about 'The Little Sister' than it does about a certain entrenched model of queer cinema shaped by past generations that we spend much of Hafsia Herzi's third feature waiting for something terrible to happen. Coming-out stories have long been weighted with expectations of trauma or tragedy, and the stakes in this one are high: Our heroine Fatima is a devout Muslim girl from an Algerian immigrant household in Paris, fearful that her nascent lesbianism will see her cast out of her family and faith. But conflict doesn't arise in quite the ways you'd expect throughout this quiet character study, in which self-acceptance is the most significant narrative hurdle to clear. Sensitive and empathetic but a little timid in storytelling and style, 'The Little Sister' rests considerably on its lead performance by first-time actor Nadia Melliti, an arresting presence who suggests Fatima's vulnerabilities and insecurities from behind a withdrawn exterior — though the film can, at points, feel hemmed in by her emotional range. It's not hard to imagine Herzi herself having taken the role earlier in her career, though as in her last directorial venture, 2021's 'Good Mother,' the actor-turned-filmmaker stays off camera, guiding her cast with palpable care and compassion. A Cannes competition berth arguably places undue pressure on this affecting but modest work, though it's a broadly accessible arthouse prospect. LGBT-oriented programmers and distributors, in particular, are sure to take an interest. More from Variety 'Queen of the South's' Alice Braga to Star in New Carolina Jabor Film, Based on Novel by Cannes Jury Member Leila Slimani (EXCLUSIVE) Eli Roth's 'Ice Cream Man' Sells Distribution Rights in France, U.K., and Other Key Territories to StudioCanal's Sixth Dimension (EXCLUSIVE) Biopic of Turkish-Armenian Photojournalist Ara Güler Becomes First Film to Be Jointly Produced by Historically Hostile Turkey and Armenia (EXCLUSIVE) In the first of the film's season-based chapters, Fatima is introduced as a bright high-school senior, confident in the company of her mouthy friend group, and a cheeky foil to her more staid older sisters and tradition-minded parents at home. Away from those spheres, however, she's less certain of herself, for reasons that become clear when one classmate casually identifies her as a lesbian — her sudden and violent reaction speaks of the terror felt by closeted people when their secret is no longer under their guard. It certainly makes sense of her noncommittal, monosyllabic responses to her longtime boyfriend, a pushy chauvinist keen to marry and start a family as soon as possible. It's not only Fatima's queerness that's in conflict with that plan. She's determined to live a more modern life, enrolling in college to study philosophy, and soon shedding her juvenile school friends to forge her own adult identity. That comes with hesitant sexual explorations too: furtive, app-arranged meetups, under a false identity, with women more experienced and comfortable with their sexuality than she is. In one standout scene, older sensualist Ingrid (a wonderful Sophie Garagnon) gently but frankly talks her through the fundamentals of lesbian lovemaking, stressing to the shy, faintly appalled teen that 'nothing in sex is dirty.' But it's only when Fatima meets Korean nurse Ji-Na (Ji-Min Park, the vibrant star of 'Return to Seoul') that she finally feels ready to be intimate with another woman, and as herself rather than an aloof, baseball-capped alter ego. (She's even coy about her cultural identity in these encounters, routinely telling people she's Egyptian rather than Algerian — one more layer of disguise to hide behind.) The two swiftly enter into an intense, ardent relationship and before long, though she isn't yet out to her family, Fatima feels emboldened enough to attend a Pride parade with her first girlfriend. Yet when Ji-Na's mental health takes a turn for the worse and the two break up, Fatima must learn self-sufficiency in her new life. Supplementing this personal awakening is an ongoing inquiry into her faith. While Fatima remains a believer, her fear that Islam will reject her as a queer woman isn't entirely assuaged by counsel from a local imam (Abdelali Mamoun) — who advises her, with a conflicted mixture of kindness and misogyny, that homosexuality is 'not as serious' a sin in women as it is in men. Herzi's script, adapted from an autobiographical novel by Fatima Daas, is nuanced and perceptive on such matters, never more so than in a lovely scene, rich in unspoken conflicts and understanding, in which Fatima's doting mother (Amina Ben Mohamed) assures her daughter of her unconditional support. Otherwise, 'The Little Sister' feels a little short on such domestic texture and detailing. Despite the title, Fatima's family relations are only superficially explored, and more time spent observing everyday routine and activity outside of our heroine's immediate interior crisis wouldn't go amiss. Herzi treats her protagonist with such tenderness and concern — with DP Jérémie Attard's camera likewise devoted, studying her face in one rapt closeup after another — that the external particulars of her life and environment fall comparatively out of focus. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Little Sister' Scores 12-Minute Ovation At Cannes Premiere
The Little Sister drew big applause at the Cannes Film Festival. The audience gave writer-director Hafsia Herzi's coming-out pic an energetic 12-minute ovation after its world premiere Friday at the Palais. There were lots of whoops and shouts from the crowd before Herzi's post-screening thank-you speech as people showed their enthusiasm for the French director's third feature aka La Petite Dernière. More from Deadline 'The Little Sister' Review: Nadia Melliti Makes A Striking Debut In Hafsia Herzi's Seductive Coming-Out Story – Cannes Film Festival Cannes Film Festival 2025: Read All Of Deadline's Movie Reviews Studio TF1 CEO Pierre Branco Talks Cinema Push, Hire Of Ex-Sky Original Film Director & Appointment Of French Distribution Head The film starring Nadia Melliti is adapted from Fatima Daas's semi-autobiographical 2022 novel The Last One, the story of a young gay Muslim woman's sexual awakening. In his Deadline review, Damon Wise wrote, 'Herzi confidently takes what could have been a traditional coming-out tale and turns it into something altogether more defiant, a character study that takes place in the no-man's-land between the oppressive certainties of childhood and the intoxicating freedoms of early adulthood.' RELATED: Here's the logline: Fatima, 17, is the youngest. She lives in the suburbs with her sisters, in a happy and loving family. A good student, she joins a philosophy school in Paris and discovers a whole new world. As she begins her life as a young woman, she emancipates herself from her family and its traditions. Fatima then begins to question her identity. How can she reconcile her faith with her budding desires? Park Ji-min, Amina Ben Mohamed, Rita Benmannana, Melissa Guers also star in The Little Sister, which MK2 Films is shopping on the Riviera. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About Paramount's 'Regretting You' Adaptation So Far 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery Where To Watch All The 'Mission: Impossible' Movies: Streamers With Multiple Films In The Franchise
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Hafsia Herzi Brings Live-Wire Spirit to Cannes Competition Title ‘The Little Sister': ‘I'd Always Dreamed of Doing Something Fast, a Bit Thrown Together.'
Hafsia Herzi's breakout turn in 2007's 'The Secret of the Grain' catapulted her from obscurity to stardom, establishing her as a mainstay of French cinema. Just over a decade later, she redefined her artistic path with her self-produced directorial debut, 'You Deserve a Lover,' which premiered out of Critics' Week in 2019. Lately, both sides of her career have reached new heights: she recently won the César for best actress for the crime thriller 'Borgo,' and now enters the Palme d'Or competition with 'The Little Sister.' This latest directorial outing reunites much of the crew from her scrappy debut — a loyal team that also worked with her on 'Good Mother,' which screened in Un Certain Regard in 2021. More from Variety 'The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo' Review: A Chilean Drama About HIV and Transgender Romance 'Sirat' Review: Oliver Laxe's Excruciatingly Tense, Escalatingly Insane Road Trip Through a Desert Purgatory Consortium Media Finance Launches at Cannes and Unveils First Slate of Feature Productions (EXCLUSIVE) 'I just got tired of waiting,' Herzi says of her leap into directing. 'I'd always dreamed of doing something fast, a bit thrown together. One day I just said, let's go. Worst case, I'd have a film. I had nothing to lose—it's just cinema.' The director brought that same livewire spirit to 'The Little Sister,' a coming-of-age drama about a young Franco-Algerian woman grappling with the tension between her Queer identity and her deep religious faith. 'I'm always chasing something real,' Herzi says. 'On set, I see myself as the film's first viewer—watching it unfold in real time. I try to stay attuned to what's happening, close enough to feel it, but far enough not to get in the way. If a moment moves me—if I laugh or cry—I know it's working. If not, I have no problem scrapping the scene and trying something else.' Herzi initially stepped in front of the camera out of sheer necessity, knowing her name could help carry her debut. But since then, she's preferred to hang back — and she plans to keep it that way. 'I take the most joy in filming others,' she says of her intimate, close-up-driven style. 'I love being near people, their faces, their skin. I'm inspired by portrait painting. That's why there's almost no makeup—everything is kept simple, so I can stay close, feel their breath, their pulse. I want to live the emotion with them. If I'm too far, or the frame isn't right, I lose that. Faces are beautiful. Why wouldn't we take the time to really look?' Going forward, Herzi remains committed to that approach. 'I want to shine a light on people we rarely see on screen,' she says. 'I've rarely seen a proudly Queer North African character on screen, even though I know so many women like her. I had to tell her story.' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
