Writer/director Hafsia Herzi’s “The Little Sister” calmly and insightfully observes French Algerian seventeen-year-old Fatima’s lesbian inclination, exploration, and confirmation. Living in Paris, Fatima is the little sister of the title, the youngest of three. Her mother assures Fatima that she’s always there for her. Nevertheless, that Fatima’s family is Muslim complicates her situation. Wisely, rather than presenting an expansive, sweeping survey, Herzi sensitively and without histrionics follows Fatima’s tentative questioning of her own desires, pursuing online postings, and responding with curiosity to nurse Ji-Na’s lingering eye contact during a doctor’s visit for her father. In the 2025 Cannes Film Festival press conference, director Herzi said this film is an appeal to reach out to others, to accept oneself, “based on tolerance and love.”
In French with English subtitles, “The Little Sister” screens at Webster University’s Winifred Moore auditorium Friday, August 21, through Sunday, August 23, at 7:30 p.m. each of those evenings. For more information: Webster.edu/filmseries.
To read my full review of “The Little Sister” from the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, please see:
https://awfj.org/blog/2025/05/19/the-little-sister-cannes-ff-2025-review-by-diane-carson/ and Please subscribe to AWFJ.org (Alliance of Women Film Journalists) to read all of my reviews, festival coverage and other essays.