Hafsia Herzi Premieres in Competition with La Petite Dernière

When seventeen-year-old Fatima arrives at college to begin her studies in philosophy, she finds herself lost in a new and confusing world. Uprooted from her neighborhood in the outskirts of Paris, she explores her attraction to women. This leads to an upheaval that forces her to re-examine her beliefs and her relationship with family members, so much so that she eventually begins to question her own identity.

Before being brought to the screen, La Petite Dernière caused a sensation in the literary world. In each chapter of her debut novel, Fatima Daas examines a facet of her protagonist’s identity — a protagonist who shares her name, allowing the story to be viewed as part fiction, part autobiography. It is a stark and piercing portrayal of a young woman’s life divided between city and suburbs, of a young woman’s lifestyle rejected by her family’s deeply held Muslim beliefs — and a stark and piercing portrayal of all the pain and challenges that she faces as she works to reinvent herself.

Bringing what she has learned as an actress to her role as director, Hafsia Herzi gave great care to the film’s distribution. La Petite Dernière introduces us to its star, Nadia Melliti, who was discovered at an open casting call held during a pride parade. Coincidentally, she, like her character, has experience as an elite soccer player. Hafsia’s guests are Louis Memmi, who appeared with her in Stéphane Demoustier’s Borgo, as well as Park Ji-Min, who debuted in Davy Chou’s Retour à Séoul (Return to Seoul) (Un Certain Regard, 2022).

Fortune smiles on Hafsia Herzi. Earlier this year, she won the César for Best Actress, and today, her film is in Competition at Cannes. Ever since her first film Tu mérites un amour (You Deserve a Lover), which she made with whatever resources she could find, and her Un Certain Regard Ensemble Prize for Bonne mère (Good Mother) in 2021, it was only inevitable that she would one day sit in the director’s chair.