Unveil in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, The Little Sister [+lee también:
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Cineuropa: Your first two features were original screenplays, The Little Sister is an adaptation of the novel by Fatima Daas. What drew you to this book?
Hafsia Herzi: I was offered this adaptation and I really fell in love with it. I'd never seen this character in the cinema, but I had in real life. I grew up in the northern suburbs of Marseille, so I know the character of the lesbian girl living in the suburbs. I was a bit worried about the idea of adapting the novel because it had been very well received and film adaptations don't always go down well. But I went for it.

First I got rid of the whole childhood aspect, which is very present in the book, saying to myself that we would understand the childhood she had by seeing the family. I gathered everything together over a year of her life and sorted it out by taking what inspired me in the novel: a character of a young lesbian woman, a Muslim, at odds with her faith, who has desires, who is searching for herself, a character who feels bad inside because she feels different, because she knows that she has always been attracted to women. But then there's society... She also blames herself for her family and her religion. It touched me because I know that some people never admit their homosexuality to their parents and that sometimes women who are attracted to women marry men, and vice versa, in an attempt to be "normal". It's heartbreaking, it's a community that's suffering. I collected a lot of testimonies because I needed to investigate. While there were elements in the book that I felt close to, notably the character's social class, family, studies and emancipation, I knew nothing about the sexuality of women who love women. What's more, I knew that homophobia existed, but I didn't realise the extent of it, and I was horrified by some of the accounts.

What about the romantic aspect of the film in this much broader context?
I wanted to normalise the character. She's first and foremost a human being. Everyone should be free to live their lives and desires as they see fit. I wanted everyone to be able to identify with this love story. They are two women, but it could be a man and a woman: the problems are the same, love is complicated for everyone.

You give a lot of space to the character's family and culture, with religion appearing only very occasionally in the story.
In the book, religion is more present, but I wanted to describe it more as a backdrop. It's the character's faith, it's her privacy and it's none of our business. That's why in the scenes where she's praying, we're directly involved in the action, we're far away, we're discreet. Furthermore, the film doesn't show the rest of her family praying.

How did you want to deal with the sexual scenes, which are both very frontal and very discreet because you cut away quite quickly?
I wanted sensuality and to show sexuality because it's part of life, but I didn't want any déjà-vu or simulated sex scenes. I tried to find something new, so I filmed a spoken sex scene that doesn't exist in the book and whose dialogue was inspired by my research into female sexuality. I wanted people to forget about the cameras and get things out in the open.

Nadia Melliti is a real revelation. How did you find her?
We had a big, wild casting session that lasted almost a year. As soon as I started writing the script, I knew it would be complicated to find the right person to play this character. Nadia was discovered in the street and the first thing I saw was a photo of her. I was struck by the look in her eyes. And after the interview and improvisation stages, as soon as I met her, I knew it was her. She also brought a sporty side to the character and, moreover, when I saw her football videos, because she was a professional, even though I don't know anything about it, I thought it was beautiful.