“Fatima” – Nowhere to turn [MOVIE REVIEW]
Soria Zeroual and Zita Hanrot in “Fatima.” Photo courtesy of Kino Lober
“Fatima” is certainly a well-intentioned film. Director Philippe Faucon grew up in France as a first generation child in a family where his grandparents never spoke French. They were part of an immigrant class who came to a new country and had a difficult time maneuvering in a culture that was alien to them. These are the men and women who take on the jobs no one else wants to do. They are outsiders in their new country and increasingly isolated from their former culture.
Fatima, the protagonist of Faucon’s film, is invisible to the society around her. With little or no French, she works, often off the books, in menial and punishing cleaning jobs trying to support her two daughters, who represent two opposite poles of the immigrant experience. Daughter Nesrine is the classic over-achiever. Recently admitted to medical school, she needs financial support for books and independent maintenance in an apartment shared with two others. A good girl who still follows the tenets of her religion, minus the veil, she is the pride and joy of her mother, who revels in her daughter’s success, a pride that invokes jealousy in Fatima’s peer group of working class Muslim women. Fatima’s other daughter, Souade, is at the other end of the spectrum. Still in high school, she has fallen in with a tough crowd and is a resentful and rebellious teen acting out in school and cutting classes when the mood strikes her. Her mother is often called away from work to meet with Souade’s teachers. Clearly Fatima is unable to fathom the demands of the school and the lack of respect shown by her daughter. Her ex-husband tries to help but, as the resentful Souade points out, his new family comes first. But the real issue is Souade’s shame. Her mother is a cleaning lady, the lowest position imaginable and Souade cannot bear such humiliation. Couple that with her older sister’s success, her absent father and her mother’s inability to assimilate into French society or maintain a position within their Muslim community and you have a disaster waiting to happen.
The film is called “Fatima,” so it is surprising that it takes so long to focus on her and when it does, not enough interest has been generated. Fatima keeps a journal of her most intimate thoughts about her struggles to adjust. She had very little formal education as a girl, leaving her untrained for almost anything but the cleaning work that she is forced to take on. She is an observer in life, but one who doesn’t seem to fathom what is going on around her, not with her daughters, not with herself. This makes it rather tough going for the viewer.
Faucon admits to having had difficulty in casting his three leads and, unfortunately, it does show. Non- professional Soria Zeroual, Fatima, has the right look but seems disengaged from the real emotion of the situation. Zita Hanrot as Nesrine is never quite able to give nuance to the role of the “good girl.” Occasionally she is able to convey the kind of stress she is under but never do we feel that she, too, is an outsider. Kenza Noah Aïche’s Souade is, perhaps, the most developed character. Aïche successfully conveys Souade’s anger, frustration, confusion and vulnerability in a role that was written without much subtlety.
Although the French generally excel at “slice of life” storytelling, “Fatima” is just too small a slice. The script by Faucon was loosely based on the book by Fatima Elayoubi entitled Prière à la Lune et Enfin, Je Peux Marcher Seule (Praying to the Moon and Finally I can Walk on my Own) with dialogue and script assistance by Aziza Boudjellal, Yasmina Nini-Faucon and Mustapha Kharmoudi. It would be interesting to know whether the book lacked character development as well.
“Fatima” is a film that tackled an interesting subject, the difficulties of the outsider marginalized by society, in a sincere but ultimately uncompelling manner. Others will disagree with my view; certainly the French did because this film won or was nominated for multiple César awards, the French equivalent of the Oscar. As the French would say, chacun á son gout (each to his own).
Opening Friday September 16 at the Laemmle Royal.