La Petite Dernière is a drama written and directed by Hafsia Herzi, starring Nadia Melliti, Ji-Min Park, and Amina Ben Mohamed. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Fatima Daas, the film will be released in theaters on October 22, 2025.
Fatima, 17, is the youngest child in a loving Franco-Algerian family. A good student, she leaves the suburbs to attend a philosophy faculty in Paris. Between discovering the world, meeting new people, and questioning her identity, she faces a profound inner conflict: how can she reconcile her faith, her traditions, and her emerging desires?
Presented in official competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, the film earned Nadia Melliti the Best Actress Award. With its intimate staging and its look at contemporary youth, La Petite Dernière explores emancipation, faith, and freedom with sobriety and accuracy.
What a year for Hafsia Herzi. After winning the César Award for Best Actress for her role in Stéphane Demoustier's excellent Borgo, the actress has now been invited to walk the red carpet at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, as her new feature film as a director, La Petite Dernière, has been selected for the official competition.
Adapted from the novel of the same name by Fatima Daas, La Petite Dernière is a free-spirited portrait of Fatima (brilliant Nadia Melliti), a tomboyish 17-year-old suburbanite who discovers her homosexuality and must learn to reconcile her identity with her convictions.
On paper, everything looked set to turn this into yet another film about intra-family conflicts (Fatima is French-Algerian, a practicing Muslim, involved with a young man who wants to marry her). But this was without counting on Hafsia Herzi 's brilliance, who avoids the reefs and delivers a film of great beauty, shot through with sincere joy.
The young girl's family is loving (the mother, full of pride, hangs her three daughters' diplomas on the wall of the family room and proves unfailingly supportive in a moving final scene), in contrast to works that unfold the decorum - stereotypical or not - of Muslim families closed (at best) or hostile (at worst) to women's emancipation, even more so when they love other women.
The conflict is internal, taking place solely in Fatima's heart and mind, with no external confrontations. This journey of self-discovery involves empathetic encounters, some of which are unusual to say the least (the scene in the car with an outspoken lesbian giving her advice is particularly funny). And this is indeed the strength of Hafsia Herzi's film, which relies in part on a quality cast and a gallery of carefully written characters —from the understanding doctor to the two older sisters of the youngest child.
La Petite Dernière
Film | 2025
In theaters October 22, 2025
Nationality: France
With rare accuracy, La Petite Dernière explores identity, faith, and love through the eyes of a young woman in search of truth.
To extend your theater experience, check out October's new releases, films to see right now, and our selection of the year's best dramas.
This article is based on information available online; we have not yet seen the film mentioned.
