Director: Kaouther Ben Hania

Features: Olfa Hamrouni, Eya Chikhaoui, Tayssir Chikhaoui, Nour Karoui, Ichrak Mater, Majd Mastroura, Hend Sabri

Shades of Abbas Kiarostami's 'Close-Up' in director Ben Hania's audacious experimental picture, a documentary come dramatization come therapy session that blurs the boundaries between realism and drama while investigating a family's complex history.

It focuses on Olfa Hamrouni, a Tunisian single mother who lost the two eldest of her four daughters, Ghofrane and Rahma, in a highly publicised series of incidents.

The director interviews Olfa and her two remaining daughters Tayssir, and Eya, and inserts four actors into the mix; two, Ichrak Matar and Nour Karoui play the absent daughters Ghofrane and Rahma, while Hend Sabri is recruited to play Olfa herself in moments which may be too painful for the mother to relive. The versatile Majd Mastroura plays all the male parts which itself is illustrative of themes at play here.

The family members display an affectionate and cheeky rapport that belies a troubled history. The young actors Matar and Karoui are very quickly accepted as sisters, almost uncannily so. In a very moving sequence Olfa and her daughters weep at Matar's close resemblance in looks and demeanour to the real Ghofrane. This sequence however may also raise eyebrows at the ethics of such an exercise.

During the filming, actor Sabri quizzes the mother she is playing on her prior behaviour. Olfa begins to talk about the harrowing experiences she has undergone, some which find echoes in the subsequent treatment of her daughters.

This is a very absorbing investigation of identity, memory, guilt, and how beliefs and practices forged in an oppressive society are handed down over the generations.

It's mostly shot in Olfa's sparse apartment, but Hanja makes good use of the spaces, and in the positioning of the players/family members in various striking tableaux, sometimes dressing them all in black or white.

A coda with the family cat eloquently underlines some of the themes, and the conclusion, which deploys real footage is devastating.

Four Daughters is released on 1st March

David Willoughby

Follow David on Twitter @DWill_Crackfilm