CANNES – There has to be something quietly reassuring about the world that a movie about a first-generation French Algerian woman coming to terms with her sexuality is not deemed groundbreaking in 2025. This is a story we’ve seen many times before, either on film or television. Yes, even one centred on a queer person wrestling with their Muslim faith. So much so, as Hafsia Herzi’s “The Little Sister” begins to unfold, you start to wonder what about this particular story makes it worthy of being selected for competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival? Why is this particular incarnation deemed worthy of your attention? It’s likely the performance of newcomer Nadia Melliti.
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Adapted from Fatima Daas’ autobiography, “The Last One,” the film essentially follows the life of our 19-year-old protagonist (Melliti) for a little over a year. When we first meet Fatima, her priority is studying for her university entry exams. She lives in a Muslim-centric, working-class suburb of Paris, but aspires for something more. She has two older sisters who are much more outgoing and opinionated than she is, and immigrant parents who appear to let their girls live their lives free of judgment. Her best friends are a pack of seven other boys she refers to as her brothers, and she appears to have few female friends, if any. Fatima is also secretly dating a Muslim boy who wants to take their relationship to the next level, but even in her confused, closeted state (she attacks a classmate for suggesting she’s a lesbian), she knows he’d be a mistake.
After downloading a dating app, she starts to venture out and meet other lesbian women for the first time. This is when you begin to wonder if this is where Herzi has conjured something special. The conversations and stories Fatima has with the women she meets are enlightening not only for our heroine, but the viewer as well. They are grounded and free of the obvious clichés of the “coming out” genre (don’t worry, plenty of those will pop up later). Fatima essentially sows her wild oats in this period, but a larger emotional connection eludes her. Her perspective changes over the summer when she meets Ji-Na (Park-ji Min), a Korean immigrant working in the city, and that intriguing aspect of the picture fades away.
There is a spark with Ji-Na that Fatima has never experienced before, that first love euphoria. They explore the queer Paris nightlife and attend a Pride celebration in public. Life experiences that Fatima now seems quite comfortable with. Ji-Na is almost a decade older, however, and she’s not as emotionally or mentally stable as Fatima believed. A dramatic heartbreak is on the horizon, and as with the end of most first loves, it will hit Fatima hard.
In the fall, Fatima enters university, where she quickly makes friends with a group of rambunctious young men. One of their cousins, Cassandra (Mouna Soualem), an outwardly queer woman also of arab descent, immediately clocks Fatima as a lesbian. And, despite her inclination to keep her sexuality private at school, she soon has a new tribe (it doesn’t hurt that one of the boys is gay either). She may have a new crew to be her authentic self with, but something is missing.
Again, this isn’t breaking a lot of new ground here. Not for a French language project or one centered on a Lesbian main character. Herzi dips her toe into Fatima having doubts over her sexuality due to her Muslim faith, but it feels quickly discarded. Fatima’s sisters, who had begun to make slight digs at their sibling’s butch appearance also fade from the proceedings diminishing any familiatal pressure. Perhaps in the novel, there was more room to explore this conflict than on the screen. Maybe Herzi realized it was only one piece of a larger puzzle. A puzzle that comes to a head in a tender scene between Fatima and her mother.
Her first professional on-screen role, Melliti, is quietly spectacular in this moment. There is genuine talent there. Melliti has an on-screen presence that is, at times, truly captivating. And, at this pivotal point in the film, she unveils a side of Fatima the audience hasn’t witnessed before. It’s one keenly memorable scene, but is that enough? Herzi’s directing skills have showcased her talented cast. Her slick aesthetic has given the tale a needed polish. But will the rest of it stay with you? For someone, somewhere, in a similar situation, if they can find a way to see it, it no doubt will. [B-/C+]
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