{"id":23324,"date":"2025-09-22T21:08:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T21:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/?page_id=23324"},"modified":"2026-02-11T01:20:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T01:20:25","slug":"the-little-sister","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/the-little-sister\/","title":{"rendered":"THE LITTLE SISTER\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][mk_padding_divider][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1754527408725{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]\n

THE LITTLE SISTER<\/h1>\n

(La Petite derni\u00e8re)<\/h2>\n

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<\/h2>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”custom” css=”” accent_color=”#660084″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/3″][mk_content_box heading=”CINEMA COMPETITION”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1757178498930{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]\n

RENOIR THEATER<\/p>\n

DRAMA<\/h3>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/mk_content_box][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][mk_custom_box corner_radius=”15″ bg_color=”#dbcce2″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1758577782471{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]\n

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1<\/strong>
\n8:05 pm (Screening ends at 10:00 pm)
\nFollowed by a conversation with Nadia Melliti (Winner Best Actress Cannes 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/mk_custom_box][mk_padding_divider size=”10″][mk_image src=”https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/order-tickets.jpg” image_size=”full” link=”https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.eventive.org\/schedule\/68d7a63ac0bb78a11b8709e8″ target=”_blank” align=”center”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][mk_content_box heading=”PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH:”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1758902695730{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]\n

Strand Releasing
\nmk2, ELMA, LAFCA
\nFrance T\u00e9l\u00e9visions<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/mk_content_box][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][mk_padding_divider size=”20″][vc_separator color=”custom” border_width=”2″ css=”” accent_color=”#ea1300″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1759175756378{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Los Angeles Premiere<\/span><\/strong> |\u00a0France |\u00a02025\u00a0|\u00a0Drama |\u00a0106\u00a0min\u00a0|\u00a0In French with English subtitles <\/span><\/p>\n

Directed by: <\/b>Hafsia Herzi<\/span>
\n<\/span>Written by: <\/b>Hafsia Herzi<\/span>
\n<\/span>Based on the Book by:<\/b> Fatima Daas<\/span>
\n<\/span>Produced by: <\/b>Julie Billy & Naomie Denamur (June Films), <\/span>Vanessa Ciszewski (Katuh Studio), Arte France Cin\u00e9ma
\n<\/span>Cinematography:\u00a0<\/b>J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Attard
\n<\/span>Original Score: <\/b>Amine Bouhafa
\n<\/span>Film Editing:<\/b> G\u00e9raldine Mangenot
\n<\/span>Cast:<\/b> Nadia Melliti (Fatima), Ji-Min Park (Ji-Na),\u00a0Louis Memmi (Benjamin), Mouna Soualem (Cassandra), Melissa Guers (Nour), Nemo Schiffman (Yann), Rita Benmannana (Dounia), Vincent Pasdermadjian (Vincent)<\/span>
\n<\/span>International Sales: <\/b>mk2 Films
\n<\/span>US Distributor:<\/b> Strand Releasing
\n<\/span>US Release Date:<\/b> TBA<\/span><\/p>\n

Synopsis<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We meet Fatima, the teenage daughter of a Muslim family in the Paris projects, as she performs her ablutions, then kneels and prays in full hijab garb.\u00a0 Yet the street-slang-slinging soccer-freak and resident tomboy is far from the Islamic ideal of womanhood, and it won’t be long before her truly “veiled” nature erupts and rises to the surface. Walking off with not one, but two major prizes (the Best Actress award for Nadia Melliti and the Queer Palm) at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, <\/span>Hafsia Herzi<\/b>‘s stunning coming-of-age drama is deftly, quietly told and filled with nuanced performances across the board, as it plunges us into a devastating conflict between sexual desire, spiritual demands and self-acceptance, and the enormous courage it takes to utter the unspeakable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Director’s Biography<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Actress-turned-writer\/director <\/span>Hafsia Herzi<\/b>\u00a0made her big-screen debut in Abdellatif Kechiche’s Franco-Tunisian feature <\/span>The Secret of the <\/span><\/i>Grain<\/span><\/i> (COLCOA 2008), for which she won both the C\u00e9sar Award for Most Promising Actress and the Marcello Mastroianni Award in Venice. She has since appeared in over 60 films, including St\u00e9phane Demoustier’s <\/span>Borgo<\/span><\/i> (2023), for which she was honored with a C\u00e9sar Award for Best Actress. She wrote and directed her first short, <\/span>La Rodba<\/span><\/i>, in 2010, and her first feature, <\/span>You Deserve a Lover<\/span><\/i>, in 2019. Her second feature, <\/span>Good Mother<\/span><\/i> (2021), premi\u00e8red in the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes, where it snagged the Ensemble Prize. That was followed by the TV movie <\/span>La Cour<\/span><\/i> (2022).\u00a0 <\/span>The Little Sister<\/i><\/b>, her third theatrical feature, premiered in Competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and opened in France in late October. The film is presented at TAFFF prior to its US release, scheduled for 2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][mk_image src=”https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/screenshot-2025-09-28-at-10.00.31.png” image_size=”full” link=”https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/win-a-trip-to-paris\/” target=”_blank” align=”center”][mk_image src=”https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/littlesisterthe_poster_27x39v1.jpg” image_size=”full” frame_style=”gray_border” align=”center” margin_bottom=”10″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][mk_padding_divider][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1754527408725{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”] THE LITTLE SISTER (La Petite derni\u00e8re)   [\/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”custom” css=”” accent_color=”#660084″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/3″][mk_content_box heading=”CINEMA COMPETITION”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1757178498930{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”] RENOIR THEATER DRAMA [\/vc_column_text][\/mk_content_box][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][mk_custom_box corner_radius=”15″ bg_color=”#dbcce2″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1758577782471{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”] SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1 8:05 pm (Screening ends at 10:00 pm) Followed by a conversation with Nadia Melliti (Winner Best Actress Cannes 2025) [\/vc_column_text][\/mk_custom_box][mk_padding_divider size=”10″][mk_image […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-23324","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23324"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26318,"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23324\/revisions\/26318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}