The Garden Cinemas
Every year I set out to watch all the Oscar nominated documentaries before the awards and every year I fail. This year I’m particularly disappointed in myself as the majority of the films were available to watch on streaming services so there was really no excuse other than the fact I was too busy binging TLC’s 90 day Fiancé franchise, my current not so guilty pleasure. Funnily enough the one and only documentary I did watch, Four Daughters, was the least accessible of the five nominated and required a trip to the Garden Cinemas in Holborn. This was my first time going to a ‘fancy’ cinemas, I have been to the Barbican cinemas but I don’t know if I’d truly consider it fancy (they sell water in cans.) The Garden Cinemas was absolutely gorgeous and felt very decadent albeit a little tacky (lots of red velvet and questionable art choices) but I like a little tacky! I had a pistachio ice cream and a glass of red to enjoy while watching the film, in a proper wine glass too! Controversial opinion but I think cinemas should reintroduce intervals because half way through the movie I could have gone to the toilet and got a refill on my wine which was going down quite nicely. The only thing that was missing was popcorn but after the strict no outside food warning at the start of the screening, I was too scared to take the bag I’d bought from Sainsbury’s out.
Four Daughters
Four Daughters, is a documentary directed by Kaouther Ben Hania about a Tunisian mother called Olfa and her four daughters. Two of Olfa’s daughters, Ghofrane and Rahma, have ‘disappeared’ so they retell the story of what happened with Olfa and her two remaining daughters, Eya and Tayssir acting out what happened with the help of professional actors who play the missing girls and also an actor who plays Olfa when the scenes are too difficult for her to relive.
It was really interesting how fact and fiction blurred throughout the film, it would have been so easy to paint the mother Olfa as the villain of the piece but it’s quite a nuanced portrayal like she definitely done wrong but it’s not solely her fault, too often we blame the mother when the generational trauma is rooted in the patriarchy which we are all victims of!
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