30/09/2025 - Recently honoured with Venice’s Grand Jury Prize, the Tunisian director is already hard at work on her new feature, produced by Tanit Films and sold by The Party Film Sales

Director Kaouther Ben Hania (© Aleksander Kalka/La Biennale di Venezia - Foto ASAC)

Monday 15 September saw Tunisia’s Kaouther Ben Hania commence shooting on Mimesis, her 7th feature film after Challat of Tunis [+see also:
trailer
interview: Kaouther Ben Hania
film profile] (screened in Cannes’ 2014 ACID line-up), the documentary Zaïneb Hates the Snow [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (screened out of competition in Locarno 2016), Beauty and the Dogs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kaouther Ben Hania
film profile] (selected for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section in 2017), The Man Who Sold His Skin [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kaouther Ben Hania
film profile] (gracing Venice’s Orizzonti line-up in 2020 and nominated for the Best International Film Oscar in 2021), Four Daughters [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kaouther Ben Hania
film profile] (in competition in Cannes in 2023 and nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar in 2024) and The Voice of Hind Rajab [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kaouther Ben Hania
film profile] (awarded the recent Grand Jury Prize in Venice and the Audience Award in San Sebastián, and selected as the Tunisian candidate for the upcoming Best International Film Oscar).

The cast stars Lyne Ben Brika, Selim Chebbi, Riadh Aloui Nahdi, Rim Riahi and Fatma Ben Saïdane.

Written by the director, the story takes us back to 1990s’ Tunisia. Bouchra is against the new hostile imam who wants to turn the family mausoleum into a mosque. When she meets cameraman Ahmed, she sets about making a film on the patron of the mausoleum. It’s an endeavour which sees her investigating the origins of this cult, which shakes her beliefs to their core…

Mimesis is being produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha on behalf of French firm Tanit Films (the director’s usual partner in crime), in co-production with Arte France Cinéma, Germany’s ma.ja.de Filmproduktion, Sweden’s Laika Film & Television, Belgium’s Kwassa Films and Tunisian outfit Mime Films. Pre-purchased by Arte France, ZDF, Proximus and Be tv, the feature also enjoys support from the Occitanie and Ile-de-France regions, as well as from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Film i Väst, Eurimages, the French-German mini-treaty, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the OIF (International Francophone Organisation) and the Red Sea Fund. Having kicked off in Lozère, filming is currently unfolding in Montpellier until 17 October and will subsequently continue in Tunisia where it’s due to wrap on 31 October. Photography is entrusted to Colombia’s Juan Sarmiento G. (recently well-received for his work on The Voice of Hind Rajab and A Poet [+see also:
film review
interview: Simón Mesa Soto
film profile]).

World sales are steered by The Party Film Sales while Sunnyland Film have acquired the rights for the MENA region. Distribution in France will fall to Jour2Fête and in Belgium to Cinéart.

(Translated from French)