by Hudson Moura
In The Hidden Woman (La femme cachée), director Bashir Bensaddek takes viewers on a deeply emotional journey, gradually revealing the buried scars of Halima, a pregnant immigrant living in Montreal. Portrayed by Nailia Harzoune, Halima grapples with the tension between her new life with her Quebecois husband and young daughter and the traumas of her past in France, rooted in the patriarchal structures of her Algerian family.
The film’s strength lies in its slow, deliberate unravelling of Halima’s past—a life marked by submission and emotional wounds that linger just beneath the surface. While the specifics of her trauma remain ambiguous at first, the film hints that much of her suffering stems from the oppressive patriarchal norms imposed on the women in her family.
Upon learning she is expecting a boy, Halima makes the difficult decision to return to France, determined to confront her painful past. Her return to the fractured Benkaïd family—torn apart by decades of silence and estrangement—is filled with tension. Her siblings—Nasserine, Malik, Kaina, and Rachid—have all distanced themselves, with some not having seen their parents in over 20 years. Despite these deep divisions, Halima remains focused on confronting her parents as she struggles to reckon with the violent legacy of fear and silence that has shaped both her and her siblings’ lives.
One of the film’s compelling revelations is about Halima’s father, a Harki—a member of the Algerian population who supported the French colonial forces during the Algerian War. Now living in France, he is alienated from both the French and Algerian communities and rejected by his people for his collaboration with the colonizers. This sense of betrayal and displacement runs deep, shaping the family’s history and place in their community.
Nasserine, Halima’s sister, reveals the true, painful family secret, overturning their father’s story and exposing their mother’s trauma, which has left her unable to speak to her family in Algeria. This profound hidden revelation redefines their father, not as a Harki or hero, but as a man who ruled his family with fear, violence and disgrace. “We are rotten fruit, children of two rotten trees,” Nasserine bitterly declares, summarizing the deep fractures that have long plagued their family.
Antoine Bertrand plays Halima’s Quebecois husband, who initially seems somewhat condescending. Whether this is a flaw in the performance or a deliberate commentary on Quebecois attitudes toward immigrant trauma remains unclear. He attempts to empathize, insisting, “Just because I haven’t lived what you’ve lived doesn’t mean I can’t understand.” However, when he finally grasps the depth of his wife’s suffering, his emotional breakdown—collapsing into tears in her brother’s room—feels somewhat exaggerated for the scene’s revelation.
Bashir Bensaddek has previously brilliantly explored themes similar to memory, trauma, and the immigrant experience in his film Montreal la blanche (2016). The film delves into the lives of two Algerian refugees in Montreal, one a former pop star, Kahina, who faked her death to escape persecution, and the other a taxi driver, both grappling with their pasts and the realities of exile. Through their shared journey, Bensaddek weaves issues of identity, cultural displacement, and the intersection of religious and secular life. Kahina’s character, much like Halima, navigates the complexities of identity, trauma, and cultural dislocation in Montreal, where her past collides with her efforts to build a new life.
The Hidden Woman skillfully intertwines themes of trauma, identity, and the search for closure in the face of generational wounds—a legacy Halima is determined not to pass on to her unborn son. As Halima confronts the men who wronged her and unearthed the secrets that shaped her life, the film delivers a raw and unflinching portrayal of a woman reclaiming her voice amid a legacy of silence and submission.
The film will be presented at Cinéfranco—Festival International du film francophone, from November 1 to 10, 2024, at the Carlton Cinema in Toronto.