At home, in the eyes of her Muslim family, 19 year old Fatima is a good daughter: she prays, excels at school, and has a relaxed relationship to her parents and her two older sisters. But at school she smokes (even though she has asthma) and hangs out with the biggest bullies. She’s quiet when her friends throw out homosexual slurs – even though she’s known for a while that she herself is probably a lesbian. After Fatima meets another woman, Ji Na (Park Min-ji), for the first time using a dating app, she begins the long, rocky path out of the “closet,” which in Fatima’s case is more like a cocoon.

Director Hafsia Herzi’s second feature THE LITTLE SISTER is based on the eponymous auto-fictional novel by the Algerian-French author Fatima Daas. The film's heroine is truly at home in no world, growing up amidst irresolvable contradictions. She is so withdrawn that she constantly keeps the viewers at a distance, making it difficult for them to find a real way to connect with her. She lies to her dates and her friends and she is scared of being exposed at every turn. In the summer with her first big love, her happiness blossoms for the first time when they attend a Pride event together, but it doesn't last.

Herzi tells the story of Fatima’s self-discovery in elliptical and sharply contoured sequences. The film is peppered with outstanding cinematic moments: like the conversation with the imam who leads her in prayer, explaining why their disparate worlds will never be reconciled or her attempt to come out to her loving mother. It’s nice that this story doesn’t just provide tragedy for its lesbian couple but also a glimmer of hope.

Eva Szulkowski (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy