The sheer willingness to share their story on camera elevates “Four Daughters” in a way that makes it one of the leading contenders for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. Olfa and her youngest daughters, Tayssir and Eya, pair up with actors and actresses in Tunisia as they attempt to reenact moments from their past before Olfa’s eldest daughters, Rahma and Ghofrane, are gone. What happens to them is vague, but the reveal rides the line between mild twist and shocking revelation. Seeing Tayssir and Eya work through some of their traumas, from their mother’s boyfriend sexually abusing them to losing their sisters and living in a group home, they deliver an honesty that compels you to want to dig deeper. The way that Olfa talks about the tragedies that befell her family, yet at the same time, admits to judging and abusing her daughters, leaves you with a mixed sense of her character. It appears to be in their culture, but as someone asking for sympathy for her lost daughters, it is hard not to judge her in return.

As unfiltered as the interviews and reenactments get, there’s still a surface-level sense to the whole documentary. You can hear the director off-camera, but it never sounds like she tries to push for elaboration when the characters describe a situation vaguely. The camera lingers instead on the reactions from the actors during “scenes.” When pressed for their thoughts, the daughters state that they have already processed these incidents, even though it is apparent that they have not. From the poster and the trailer, I could predict that “Four Daughters” was a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination. And now, after watching the film, it has a level of authenticity that makes it a strong contender in the category. These women have a unique story, which makes this a one-of-a-kind documentary. Had it consisted solely of talking head interviews and roaming cameras instead of mixing documentary and fiction, it would not have grabbed attention as it does. Instead, it lands as an intense (and at the same time, quite casual) introspective into these Arabic lives in Tunisia.