Divines (Houda Benyamina, 2016): France I Qatar

Reviewed by Hassan Kandil. Viewed at AFI Fest 2016.

Divines is the first screening for Director Houda Benyamina. Although her first, Benyamina was able to create a genre of her own. The movie would definitely be seen by its nature as a rare singularity. Filming the movie, Benyamina was keen to show the unprecedented, harsh, but somehow amusing reality her characters are forced to face. Benyamina used both exceptional and unconventional cinematography to produce a movie audiences would feel is novel and unique. The director develops strong irregular scenes which eventually build up to highlight the characters conflict in order to reach success and escape a life of poverty and injustice. In Divine, the main character – Dounia – is a teenage girl born to a flawed mother in a harshly crude environment of a Paris suburb. In an attempt to elude the poor life she was born to, Dounia alongside her best friend start on a journey they think would bring their suffering to an end. Inheriting a life of danger, Dounia is an adventurous, though reckless tomboy who finds her way to become a street dealer, one of the only careers she’s known. Through Benjamina’s vision and the main character’s talent, the movie successfully guides audiences using the eyes of Dounia; to witness her become a woman, find her first love, and share her emotions of sorrow, anger, happiness, and laughter. Not just was Benyamina able to capture these critical emotional and psychological fundamentals, she was also capable of capturing the social and political elements which clash with impoverished suburban communities on a daily basis. By utilizing these elements the director is able to portray the characters’ morals,values, and highest hopes. Benjamina also made sure to reveal the characters’ innocence all throughout the chaos, and prove that even the most solid individuals are vulnerable. Explicitly this is a story about survival,struggle, and the pursuit of happiness in whatever form it may present itself, implicitly it is merely a story about friendship and love. A – must watch – true tale of French hustle.