Monday, March 26, 5:00pm, UNC Charlotte main campus, Student Union Theater, studentunion.uncc.edu
Philippe Faucon, France, 2016 / 79 min.
French and Arabic with English subtitles
Presented as part of The Tournées Festival, made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S., the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC), the French American Cultural Fund, Florence Gould Foundation and Highbrow Entertainment.
Additional sponsors are the Alliance Française de Charlotte and the UNC Charlotte French Club.
Introduction by Michèle Bissière, Professor of French, UNC Charlotte. Discussion will follow screening.
Writer-director Philippe Faucon’s long-running project of making films
about those members of the French population traditionally left off-screen
reaches a state of grace in Fatima, perfectly balancing sharp observation
of the harsh realities of the immigrant experience with an inspiring story of
individual resilience. Fatima is a middle-aged, divorced Algerian woman living in a French suburb, cleaning houses and offices from dawn to dusk to provide her spirited teenage daughters with a better future. It takes a workplace accident for Fatima to finally pay attention to her own needs and discover a powerful means of expressing them through poetry. Working with tremendous economy, Faucon brings the eye of an anthropologist and the feeling of a true artist to a story that touches on a variety of essential issues: everyday racism, illiteracy, the challenges of the French university system, and the clash between traditional, older immigrant generations and their assimilating children. Loosely based on a true story and featuring a superbly crafted, stoic performance by real-life cleaning lady Soria Zeroual, Fatima was awarded the French film industry’s two highest distinctions for 2015, the Prix Louis Delluc and the César for best film of the year.
