Four Daughters
Kino Lorber | Release Date: October 27, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostAmy NicholsonMar 14, 2024
Four Daughters is film as family therapy and family therapy as film. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonNov 9, 2023
It is full of joy and laughter, as well as tears. It is about many things, among them sisterhood, the difficulties of parenting, processing trauma in a patriarchal society, and religious extremism. But most of all, it’s filled with life, and all the triumphs and pleasure, pain and disappointments that go with it. Read full review
90
ColliderAidan KelleyFeb 19, 2024
The result is a bold and sensational documentary that seamlessly blends reality and adaptation, successfully crafting a story of grief and trauma that is as profound as it is heartbreaking. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangNov 3, 2023
This is a heartbreaker about mothers and daughters, the cruelty of repression and the slippery but revealing nature of performance. And to the end, it remains steadfast in its conviction that a woman’s truth and her beauty are never at odds. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeMay 22, 2023
Rarely does Ben Hania’s film feel exploitative or manipulative. In fact, more than anything, Four Daughters is radical in its honesty and courage. Read full review
90
Screen DailyWendy IdeMay 22, 2023
It’s frequently an uncomfortable watch and, at points, prompts prickly ethical questions about the potential for the re-traumatisation of documentary subjects. But, perhaps more unexpectedly, this bold and confrontational film is also joyous, playful and in some ways even empowering. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJan 25, 2024
As unflinching as it is empathetic, Four Daughters is the best and slipperiest kind of film, whether you want to label it a documentary or not. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenNov 30, 2023
The more avant-garde this becomes, the more interesting—aesthetically and thematically—Four Daughters is. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comPeyton RobinsonOct 27, 2023
As Olfa and the sisters give perspective on their shared trauma and heartbreak and discuss the underlying principles of it with each other and the actresses, what ensues is not simply the story of a family but a tour de force examination of women’s place in the world and the costs of how they choose to cope with it. Read full review
83
Original-CinLiz BraunJan 24, 2024
Four Daughters is a strange, moving, weirdly stagey film, heartbreaking in most aspects but infuriating in others. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyMar 1, 2024
The final scenes, even for those familiar with the real-world outcome, are haunting. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMay 24, 2023
Like a kind of cinematic Lego set, Ben Hania takes the building blocks of filmmaking and constructs from them something cathartic, affecting and original. Read full review
80
Paste MagazineFarah ChededMay 23, 2023
What Four Daughters does do, it does brilliantly. Ben Hania and her subjects give us a profound live window into the cycle of trauma and, in doing so, radically trace an under-recognized path between deeply personal pain and dogmatic extremism. Read full review
80
VarietyJessica KiangMay 22, 2023
With so many moving parts, it’s hard to isolate just one reason why Ben Hania’s film — a vast improvement on her terminally uneven, unexpectedly Oscar-nominated “The Man Who Sold His Skin” — should prove so gripping. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineDerek SmithOct 24, 2023
A fascinating metacommentary courses beneath the film’s emotional storytelling surface. Read full review
75
IndieWireSteph GreenMay 22, 2023
It’s a veritable snakepit of uneasy decisions that grips you with its novel approach to so-called truth-telling before lapsing into something a little more conventional. Read full review
67
The Film StageEthan VestbyOct 26, 2023
For proving compelling over most of its runtime, one can’t ignore the film just for faltering in its final stretch. You just wish it didn’t feel like it might be betraying its subjects a little. Read full review
67
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodMay 25, 2023
Despite Ben Hania sticking to her cinematic formula “Four Daughters” is genuinely hard to forget. It will linger with you for days afterward. That’s mostly due to Olfa’s heartbreaking perseverance to find her children and a wee bit of Ben Hania’s storytelling skill too. Read full review
60
Little White LiesRafaela Sales RossFeb 29, 2024
By gambling with the flimsy dice of morality, the director crafts a film that successfully bypasses the traps of the gratuitous to find its way towards an uncomfortable but ultimately rewarding catharsis. Read full review
60
The New York TimesBeatrice LoayzaOct 26, 2023
The re-enactments map out the family’s tension and lay bare their wounds, but the lost daughters remain cyphers — the appeal of radicalization frustratingly murky through the end. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 22, 2023
There is real emotional warmth and human sympathy in this otherwise somewhat flawed film, a docudrama experiment in getting actors to play some of the real people in a tragic news story from Tunisia. Read full review
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