Arab Films ‘Four Daughters’ and ‘The Mother of All Lies’ Share Top Documentary Prize
The hybrid fiction-non-fiction features from Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania and Moroccan director Asmae El Moudir jointly won Cannes Fest 2023 Golden Eye honor.

Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters and The Mother of All Lies from first-time Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir were this year’s best documentary winners at a ceremony in Cannes on Saturday.
Both films use experimental methods to explore stories of trauma from their home countries.
In The Mother of All Lies, El Moudir explores her family’s history and the stories and lies told surrounding the upheaval and violence of the 1981 Bread Riots in Casablanca. With no archive footage or even photographs, to draw on, she painstakingly recreates, from memory, her family’s old apartment and the old Casablanca neighborhood in the form of a miniature set on a soundstage, with figurines to represent her family members.
Winning the L’Oeil d’or honor qualifies both films for Oscar consideration. Ben Hania’s last feature, The Man Who Sold His Skin, was nominated for the 2021 Best International Film Oscar.
It was the second prize for El Moudir, who picked up the best directing honor for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section for The Mother of All Lies on Friday.
The Mother of All Lies came to Cannes without distribution in place but sale group Autlook should find buyers now for the critically acclaimed and double-award-winning drama.