The Baronesses
Four grandmas decide to perform “Hamlet”. Empowerment, fun and magic realism – the hood is turned upside down.
Rebels with a Cause Competition Best Film
Fatima lives with her family in Molenbeek, Brussels, waiting patiently for a new home in the Maghreb region. When her hopes are dashed, she decides to follow her old dream of performing Shakespeare in a theatre. Her friends encourage her and become her theatre troupe. Their reality is about to take shape, as is everything around them.
In 2009, Nabil Ben Yadir surprised everyone with his debut film, a comedy and love letter to his Brussels neighbourhood, Les Barons. Now, he’s back in the neighbourhood with a bold film co-directed by his mother, Mokhtaria Badaoui. Mokhtaria and Nabil poured their heart and soul and a lot of imagination into portraying a group of women on an adventure of a lifetime.
Combining comedy, drama, surrealism and a touch of absurdity with plenty of creative freedom, “The Baronesses” is a magical and enchanting tale of belated emancipation. Using equal parts of humour and poetry, the Maghrebi mums you encounter daily on the streets – people who are usually far from the world of cinema – are transformed into heroines. It is a sharp and moving film; because sometimes unconventional stories need magic to be told.
Javier Garcia Puerto
Mokhtaria Badaoui is a Belgian-Moroccan figure who enters feature filmmaking with “Les Baronnes” (2025), directing alongside her son Nabil Ben Yadir. The project came from an idea she developed having noticed that women of older generations—especially mothers and grandmothers—were largely missing from Ben Yadir’s earlier work “Les Barons” (2009). She co-wrote “Les Baronnes” with Stéphane Malandrin and her son. The world premiere of the film took place at the Namur Francophone Film Festival in Belgium, opening the 40th edition.
Filmography:
Les Baronnes (2025, co-dir)
Nabil Ben Yadir is a Belgian actor, film director, and screenwriter. Ben Yadir made his feature-length directorial debut in 2009 with "The Barons", which he also co-wrote with Laurent Brandenbourger and Sébastien Fernandez and which was a huge box-office success in Belgium. The film was nominated for six Magritte Awards, including Best Director and Best Screenplay. His second feature, an ambitious historical film about a little-known event in the history of France, a march for equality and against racism, "The Marchers", was screened in Official Competition at Cannes in 2013. Ben Yadir has a film production company called L'Antelope Joyeuse. "Animals" is his fourth full-length feature film.
Les barons (The Barons, 2009), La marche (The Marchers, 2013), Dode Hoek (Blind Spot, 2017), Animals (2021)