Fatima

Philippe Faucon's compassionate drama about an Algerian émigré in Lyon—based on two memoirs by Fatima Elayoubi—stars non-professional Soria Zeroual as Fatima, a divorced mother of two teenage daughters who works multiple jobs as a cleaner in order to give her girls a better life. Eldest daughter Nesrine (Zita Hanrot) is a studious, driven young woman struggling as a first-year medical student, while younger Souad (Kenza Noah Aïche) is a rebellious high school girl who cuts classes and resents her mother's inability to assimilate. Fatima herself speaks little French and maintains her cultural traditions—she still wears the headscarf, setting her apart from those around her—while her children grow up French and feel out of place in the old-world culture of their neighborhood. Fatima chronicles the experiences of these three women as they struggle to fit into society, showing the gulf between how the world views Fatima—as a middle-aged North African cleaning woman—and the mother who pours her feelings out in Arabic poetry, the only language through which she can fully express herself. Fatima is committed to giving her daughters opportunities she never had—this is her "intifada," as she writes in her poetry: the success of her daughters is her uprising against the establishment. Offering a quiet but impassioned invitation to empathize with an outsider's experience, this Best Film winner at the César Awards (France's equivalent to the Academy Award) is recommended. (S. Axmaker)