The story of how she got the role in "The Little Sister" and how she was awarded the acting prize at the Cannes Film Festival, competing against, among others, Renate Reinsve and Jennifer Lawrence, sounds almost made up.
Nadia Melliti dreamed of becoming a professional soccer player - but a leg injury forced her to start thinking in other directions.
One day I was on my way to meet some friends when I was stopped on the street by a woman who asked if I would like to audition for a film role. I thought, “Why not?”
Partly autobiographical
The role in question was the lead in “The Little Sister,” based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Fatima Daas. It describes what it was like to grow up in a Muslim family and discover she was a lesbian - and the internal and external conflicts this led to.
Director Hafsia Herzi, a big name in the French film industry, tells TT that she started casting the film a year and a half before filming.
I wanted an unknown face. I spoke to many young girls who sent pictures. When I saw Nadia, it clicked and when I met her, I decided. She had a charisma that suited the role.
In the film, the main character Fatima seeks contact on dating sites and meets other women. But it's when she meets Asian Ji-Na that things get heated. They begin an intense relationship, while Fatima's family believes she is with her boyfriend. But Ji-Na has personal problems and the relationship gets really rocky.
Like an adventure
Nadia Melliti saw her job as an actor as an adventure. The film contains some relatively innocent sex scenes, but they were no problem, she says.
My co-star Park Ji-Min and I talked through the scenes carefully and then it went well.
Similar stories tend to end tragically. “The Little Sister” does not.
I wanted joy. It wouldn't be a rosy story, but it wouldn't be dramatic and tragic either. When Fatima is sitting in the kitchen at the end talking to her mother, has the mother understood? It's not said, but for me she has. The film is not darker than it needs to be, says Hafsia Herzi.
At Cannes, Nadia Melliti competed against Renate Reinsve and Jennifer Lawrence, among others. Winning was surreal, she says, and she immediately received offers for new film roles.
But I don't stress.
Age: 23 years.
Lives: In Paris.
Occupation: Actor.
Current in: "The Little Sister" which has its Swedish cinema premiere on 9/1.
