Soria Zéroual makes a moving debut in Philippe Faucon’s César-winning FATIMA
FATIMA (Philippe Faucon, 2015)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Howard Gilman Theater
144 West 65th St. between Eighth Ave. & Broadway
Opens Friday, August 26
212-875-5050
www.filmlinc.org
www.kinolorber.com
Inspired by Fatima Elayoubi’s Prayer to the Moon, a collection of writings by a Moroccan woman trying to make a new life for herself and her family in France, Philippe Faucon’s Fatima is a tender, poignant look at the immigrant experience in the twenty-first century. In her film debut, nonprofessional actress Soria Zéroual, who was discovered after a massive talent search, stars as Fatima, a traditional woman raising two daughters in a small Muslim community in France. While her children, Nesrine (Zita Hanrot), who is starting pre-med, and Souad (Kenza-Noah Aïche), a typical disenchanted teenager who prefers hanging out with her friends and flirting with boys rather than studying, speak French and dress in contemporary styles, Fatima converses primarily in Arabic and wears a head scarf. Her ex-husband (Chawki Amari) has remarried, so she has taken on the primary responsibility of raising the kids, working several jobs as a cleaning woman in order to make money to improve their lives and offer them every possibility they deserve. On the surface, Fatima is simple and plain, struggling to communicate with her daughters, her employers, and her doctors. “If my daughter’s a success, my happiness is content,” she tells Nesrine. “You drive me so mad I could go out without a head scarf,” she says to Souad. But Fatima slowly begins revealing that there is much more to her when she picks up a pen and starts sharing her deepest thoughts in a notebook, writing poetry, letters, and short pieces about her life.
Fatima (Soria Zéroual) will do whatever it takes to make a better life for her daughters in French drama
Winner of Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Most Promising Actress (Hanrot) at the 2016 César Awards, Fatima is a beautifully made drama, written, directed, and produced (with Serge Noël) by Faucon, warmly photographed by Laurent Fenart, and edited with a soft gentleness by Sophie Mandonnet. Faucon (L’Amour, Samia), whose grandparents came from North Africa, maintains a patient, naturalistic pace throughout, centered by Zéroual’s sweetly innocent César-nominated performance, as Fatima faces racism from the French and shame from her fellow Muslims. She is a mother who would do anything for her children but is stuck in a world that traps and confines her, limiting her options, some of which Zéroual, who was cleaning banks when she auditioned for the role, has experienced herself. Hanrot excels as Nesrine, a young woman who is nervous about her future, while Souad wonderfully captures the angst and ennui of the rebellious teenager who loves her mother but wants to break free of old-fashioned traditions and outdated social mores. Although the film is not overtly political, it is clearly making a point, one that takes on ever-more-urgent meaning in the postcolonial age of Trump and Le Pen, when immigration, particularly concerning Muslims, is under attack every day.