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France, Canada · 2015
1h 19m
Director Philippe Faucon
Starring Soria Zeroual, Zita Hanrot, Kenza Noah Aïche, Chawki Amari
Genre Drama, Family
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Fatima, a Moroccan-born woman living in France, speaks poor French and struggles with her two teenage daughters. But after an accident leaves her bedridden, Fatima begins writing a letter in Arabic and attempts to bridge the gap between her and her daughters.
Faucon has built his story around very gentle, glancing blows. But this is not the focused austerity of a Robert Bresson; the director’s level distance and jaded eye lead more to lifelessness than a revealing simplicity of expression.
Slant Magazine by Clayton Dillard
The film appears to have been devised to pander to the presumptions of Western, liberal viewers.
Screen International by Dan Fainaru
Faucon, obviously very fond of all his characters, carefully avoids the patterns that many genre films fall into.
This poignant slice-of-life proves as modest in length (78 minutes) as it is generous in rueful insight and emotional complexity.
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
Faucon, whose own grandparents came to France without speaking the language, has a gift for artfully removing the melodrama from potentially overheated situations, leaving behind a scenario that is honest, direct and dramatic without any sense of special pleading or situations pushed too hard.
The Hollywood Reporter by Leslie Felperin
One of the flaws that keeps the film being as engaging as it might be is the way every shot seems to last about the same amount of time, producing a monotonous visual rhythm that only serves to make the plot seem even more episodic.
The Film Stage by Michael Snydel
Fatima inevitably falls into a catch-22: every time it presents an insightful new cultural situation, it starts to feel less like a film, and more like a series of richly detailed sketches.
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
Well-observed and unassuming as this film is, it glides along rather too blandly.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
If the movie, loosely based on two books by Fatima Elayoubi, tells a familiar story of immigrants struggling to make something of themselves in an alien culture (Fatima speaks some French but reads only Arabic), it does so in a tone that is kindhearted but clearheaded, and the performances are low-key and believable.
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