On silencing the subaltern in Tunisian docudrama

In 2023, Four Daughters , a docudrama centered on Olfa Hamrouni, a Tunisian mother whose two daughters were radicalized and joined the Islamic State, was widely praised in Western media for exposing the suffering of Arab Muslim women and offering them a platform to speak. However, this article argues that the film is far more complex than such celebratory narratives suggest. It may be more accurately understood as a pseudo-participatory production in which the director unintentionally assumes the role of savior for a subaltern woman and her daughters. Although Olfa and her daughters appear to narrate their own stories, they are further silenced through the film’s layered mediation and representational strategies. The narrative relies heavily on graphic portrayals of violence, physical and sexual abuse, and repeated tropes of patriarchal oppression, devices that serve both dramatic and ideological functions. Drawing on subaltern and postcolonial theory, and informed by recent developments in documentary filmmaking, this analysis demonstrates how the director’s interventions, along with the film’s structural and thematic choices, contribute to the objectification of Olfa and her daughters. Ultimately, the article contends that Olfa’s testimony is not a neutral or autonomous recounting of experience, but one deeply embedded in the film’s linguistic, social, and political conditions of contemporary Tunisian culture. These dynamics complicate the film’s claim to empowerment and reveal the ethical tensions involved in representing subaltern voices for global audiences.