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The Little Sister film image; woman leaning against a colourful mosaic tiled wall

The Little Sister

La Petite Dernière

Showcase

© Entract Films

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The youngest of three sisters in a conservative Franco-Arab household, Fatima is absorbed in her studies and resisting the family pressure to be married off like her siblings. But the pull to explore sensual realms grows stronger by the day, exacerbated by the ever-growing disdain she feels for her secret gentleman caller who’s already planning their future. As the realization kicks in, she decides to pursue her attraction to women with abandon, opening herself up to a wide array of romantic highs and lows.

Hafsia Herzi (A Bag of Four, The Rapture) returns to VIFF with yet another emotionally astute drama featuring a notably sharp turn by Nadia Melliti, which earned her the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Herzi’s skill for drawing out quietly intense, naturalistic performances truly shines in this beautifully lensed, layered character study where the weight of cultural identity inevitably pushes the envelope of relationship paradigms.

 

Best Actress (Nadia Melliti), Cannes 2025

Director
Cast

Nadia Melliti, Ji-Min Park

Credits
Country of Origin

France/Germany

Year

2025

Language

In French and Arabic with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+

At International Village

19+

At Fifth Avenue

107 min
Drama LGBTQIA2S+ Women Directors
June Films, Katuh Studio, ARTE France Cinéma, ZDF, mk2 Films

Book Tickets

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Credits & Director

Producer

Julie Billy, Naomi Denamur, Vanessa Ciszewski

Screenwriter

Hafsia Herzi

Cinematography

Jérémie Attard

Editor

Géraldine Mangenot

Production Design

Diéné Berete

Original Music

Amine Bouhafa

Hafsia Herzi headshot

Hafsia Herzi

Filmography: You Deserve a Lover (2019); Good Mother (2021)

Photo by Chloe Carbonel

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