Casablanca — “Divines,” the powerful film by French-Moroccan director Houda Benyamina, has been nominated in the “Best Foreign Language Film” category at this year’s Golden Globes.
Casablanca — “Divines,” the powerful film by French-Moroccan director Houda Benyamina, has been nominated in the “Best Foreign Language Film” category at this year’s Golden Globes.
The Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is a prestigious award given to the year’s best films in languages other than English. This year’s nominations were announced on Monday, December 12 in Los Angeles.
Morocco has never been officially nominated by the Golden Globes in this category, and this is the first time a film by a Moroccan director is nominated for a Golden Globe by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the non-profit that bestows these awards on both domestic and foreign works of film and television.
“Divines” has already received several other accolades. At this year’s AFI Fest, Benyamina won the Audience Award and the film’s leading actress, Oulaya Amamra, won the ‘Special Mention’ New Auteurs Grand Jury Award.
At the Cannes Film Festival, Benyamina was awarded the Golden Camera Award, which recognizes the year’s best work released by first-time directors, the ‘Special Mention’ SACD Prize as well as the Queer Palm award, an independently sponsored prize for LGBT-relevant films, likely for its portrayal of the transgender character played by Mounir Amamra.
The film was also recognized by the Hamptons International Film Festival, the London Film Festival and the Munich Film Festiva.
“Divines,” which was released on November 18 on Netflix worldwide (except in France), follows the story of Dounia (Oulaya Amamra), a teenage girl living in the outskirts of Paris, striving to establish some form of dignity and, in her attempt to do so, joins the ranks of Rebecca, a known boss dealer in the neighborhood.
Accompanied by her best friend Maimouna, Dounia encounters obstacle after obstacle in her quest for honor and respect. The story is a beautiful one of friendship, of love and struggle.
The film’s leading actress, Oulaya Amamra, is also of Moroccan origin and happens to be the director’s little sister. During the casting process, however, Benyamina was vehemently against the idea of casting her little sister.
“She was not at all the character, initially,” Benyamina tells Le Figaro. “Oulaya was educated at a private Catholic school, she had catechism classes, took classical dance classes for 15 years and swam for 12… she’s very far away from who Dounia is, she had to fight to get the role.”
But Oulaya would not give up. “She got kicked out of high school, she signed up for boxing classes and starting coming in dressed in work out clothes and a beanie,” Benyamina adds. “I looked at her saying, ‘stop, you’re not the character.’ She would respond, ‘I have the right to audition like everyone else.’”
Asked how it was to work with her older sister, Amamra tells Le Figaro, “We really discovered each other. We have always been close, and we were scared of hurting our relationship. When she told me I got the role, I cried, I was so scared to disappoint her.”
“On set, she was harder on me than anyone else. I was not allowed to make mistakes,” she adds.
At this year’s Golden Globes, “Divines” competes against “Elle” (France), “Neruda” (Chile), “The Salesman” (Iran/France) and “Toni Erdmann” (Germany).
The Golden Globe Awards will air on NBC on Sunday, January 8 starting 11 P.M. EST.
