Hafsia Herzi Brings Live-Wire Spirit to Cannes Competition Title ‘The Little Sister’: ‘I’d Always Dreamed of Doing Something Fast, a Bit Thrown Together.’

Hafsia Herzi’s breakout turn in 2007’s “The Secret of the Grain” catapulted her from obscurity to stardom, establishing her as a mainstay of French cinema. Just over a decade later, she redefined her artistic path with her self-produced directorial debut, “You Deserve a Lover,” which premiered out of Critics’ Week in 2019.

Lately, both sides of her career have reached new heights: she recently won the César for best actress for the crime thriller “Borgo,” and now enters the Palme d’Or competition with “The Little Sister.” This latest directorial outing reunites much of the crew from her scrappy debut — a loyal team that also worked with her on “Good Mother,” which screened in Un Certain Regard in 2021.

“I just got tired of waiting,” Herzi says of her leap into directing. “I’d always dreamed of doing something fast, a bit thrown together. One day I just said, let’s go. Worst case, I’d have a film. I had nothing to lose—it’s just cinema.”

The director brought that same livewire spirit to “The Little Sister,” a coming-of-age drama about a young Franco-Algerian woman grappling with the tension between her Queer identity and her deep religious faith.

“I’m always chasing something real,” Herzi says. “On set, I see myself as the film’s first viewer—watching it unfold in real time. I try to stay attuned to what’s happening, close enough to feel it, but far enough not to get in the way. If a moment moves me—if I laugh or cry—I know it’s working. If not, I have no problem scrapping the scene and trying something else.”

Herzi initially stepped in front of the camera out of sheer necessity, knowing her name could help carry her debut. But since then, she’s preferred to hang back — and she plans to keep it that way.

“I take the most joy in filming others,” she says of her intimate, close-up-driven style. “I love being near people, their faces, their skin. I’m inspired by portrait painting. That’s why there’s almost no makeup—everything is kept simple, so I can stay close, feel their breath, their pulse. I want to live the emotion with them. If I’m too far, or the frame isn’t right, I lose that. Faces are beautiful. Why wouldn’t we take the time to really look?”

Going forward, Herzi remains committed to that approach.

“I want to shine a light on people we rarely see on screen,” she says. “I’ve rarely seen a proudly Queer North African character on screen, even though I know so many women like her. I had to tell her story.”