EXCLUSIVE: It has been a year of firsts for French actress and director Hafsia Herzi.
In February, she became the first French artist of North African ancestry to win Best Actress in the 50th edition of France’s César awards for her performance in Corsica-set drama Borgo, as a prison guard suspected of being an accomplice in a double murder.
Three months later, she is in Competition in Cannes for the first time with her third feature film The Little Sister.
This success has not come out of the blue.
Herzi, who was born in France to parents of Algerian and Tunisian origin, has been steadily building her career ever since being discovered in Abdellatif Kechiche’s Coucous (La Graine et Le Mulet) in 2007. Having since racked up 60 credits as an actress, she moving into directing in 2010.
Her first feature You Deserve A Lover played in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2019, while her second film Good Mother premiered in Un Certain Regard, winning the ensemble prize.
The Little Sister stars big screen debutant Nadia Melliti as 17-year-old Fatima, who is grappling with her attraction to women, and her loyalty to her caring French-Algerian family, attempting to stay true to herself while reconciling different parts of her identity.
The movie is adapted from Fatima Daas 2020 autofiction novel The Last One recounting the experience of being a queer Muslim woman in an immigrant community, where questions of sexual identity are rarely broached.
The film is produced by Julie Billy and Naomi Denamur at June Films. Mk2 Films is handling international sales. Deadline talked to Herzi ahead of the Competition screening, while the production has unveiled a first clip. Check it out below.
DEADLINE: What drew you to Fatima Daas’ novel?
HERZI: Actually, I didn’t know the work. It was proposed to me just after my first film. My agent called me and said there are two producers who would like to meet you. That’s when I discovered it. What I liked as I was reading it, was that it was a character that we’ve never seen in the cinema. I’d never done an adaptation before and thought it would be an opportunity to try. I then met the author who signed off on me doing the adaptation.
DEADLINE: When you met her, did you get a sense of having something in common as second-generation descendants?
HERZI: The book itself, even if it’s not my story, already spoke to me because I found points in common, especially when she describes her family, immigrant parents, and being second generation.
DEADLINE: How did you develop the character?
HERZI: Even if the character in the book is not entirely new to me, I did research, I learned about the environment, I went to parties, I gathered several testimonies from people living this kind of situation.
DEADLINE: The film reveals the character’s questions around her sexuality bit by bit. It’s very subtle.
HERZI: That was deliberate. We wanted her to be discovered little by little, because she is discovering herself little by little, and since she’s a character who’s searching for herself, I wanted to confuse the issue a little. She doesn’t know what she wants, even if she knows she’s not attracted by boys.
DEADLINE: Fatima hails from a Muslim French Algerian family. Does it still remain that difficult for someone to come out in that community in real life?
HERZI: It’s complicated for sure, but it could also be a Christian family, rich or poor. What I liked is her pudeur and unease, difficulty she has in putting words to what she is feeling, but this situation could arise in any background, social class or religion.
DEADLINE: There have been lots of films about young men grappling with their sexual orientation, but fewer about woman…
HERZI: That’s what drew me to the story. She’s a character that I recognise, know in real life but have never seen in the cinema and I said to myself it’s good to try to shed light on that.
DEADLINE: Nadia Melliti makes her big screen debut in the role. How did you find her?
HERZI: We did a lot of open castings and scouting on the streets around Chatelet and that’s where we found her.
DEADLINE: Did the storyline make it more complicated in terms of casting?
HERZI: It complicated thing at every level. As soon as we talked about the subject, told the story, a lot of people decided not to follow-up, even among some of the crew we talked to. That just made me even more determined to make the film. I was surprised. I know that there are people who are homophobic but had not realized it was so widespread. It was shocking for me, I hadn’t realized it would cause such a problem… but on the positive side, it meant the people who joined me on the project were there for the right reasons.
DEADLINE: With the main backdrops being Fatima’s high school and then her university life, you’ve brought together a diverse and young cast. How was it working with all these youngsters?
HERZI: I loved it. love creating scenes involving lots and lots of people. It’s why I wrote those scenes. They were fantastic. I would have loved to have done more but I couldn’t… the film would have been too long.
DEADLINE: What does it mean for you to be in Competition in Cannes with this film?
HERZI: It’s a little scary but it’s a good fear and I’m very happy to be there. I hope people will like the film and it’s message will shine through.
DEADLINE: What’s next…
HERZI: I have acting roles coming together but on the directing front, I’m waiting to see what happens with this film… I want to take a step back. It’s exhausting making a film and we’ve been working on it for years… the writing and adaption took at least two years and I had a baby in between times… and then the preparation and casting took another two years… but I adore directing, it’s exhausting but I love it.
