A little girl goes missing in Tunisia on a visit with her mother to meet her estranged father. Sophia is a tense thriller which has its UK premier at Manchester Film Festival 2026.
It can’t be easy to be a multi-hyphenate in the world of film making, but Dhafer L’Abidine has jumped in at the deep end with Sophia. He is credited as writer, director and producer on this Tunisian/British film, and also takes the lead role of Hicham, estranged father of 6-year-old Sophia (Maya Celine Gharbi) who is visiting Tunisia for the first time with her English mother Emily (Jessica Brown Findlay). Relationships are cautiously being rebuilt when Sophia suddenly disappears from her father’s side in the middle of a crowd. The police are helpful to a point, but their enquiries initially lead nowhere and suspicion is thrown onto Hicham.
L’Abidine keeps the tension high by not giving too much away too soon. My own idea of who the culprit could be changed several times, and I know others around me felt the same. The culture difference between the bereft parents asks the audience to examine its prejudices too; yet at the same time the trauma is a human one, and you’re rooting for things to work out for everyone.
In the tradition of thrillers there’s an abundance of chases – in cars, on foot, even across the rooftops of Tunis, which keeps the excitement high. And the locations look fabulous too – the streets of the Medina, the backdrop of ferries on the sea and the sun-drenched streets are perfect in providing the atmosphere of being somewhere a bit different – exactly how mum Emily is feeling. We’ve seen her beautiful English country mansion home already and this is a world away, and her lack of language skills also means that she can’t always keep up with what is happening, adding to her anxiety.
As the audience was being evicted from the cinema to make way for the next screening, I was able to quickly chat with L’Abidine on the way out, and established that the film does not yet have distribution in the UK – I hope this is resolved soon, as it is a genuinely tense and intricate thriller with a great cast which deserves to be more widely seen.
Sophia plays at Manchester Film Festival (19th – 29th 2026).
A little girl goes missing in Tunisia on a visit with her mother to meet her estranged father. Sophia is a tense thriller which has its UK premier at Manchester Film Festival 2026.
It can’t be easy to be a multi-hyphenate in the world of film making, but Dhafer L’Abidine has jumped in at the deep end with Sophia. He is credited as writer, director and producer on this Tunisian/British film, and also takes the lead role of Hicham, estranged father of 6-year-old Sophia (Maya Celine Gharbi) who is visiting Tunisia for the first time with her English mother Emily (Jessica Brown Findlay). Relationships are cautiously being rebuilt when Sophia suddenly disappears from her father’s side in the middle of a crowd. The police are helpful to a point, but their enquiries initially lead nowhere and suspicion is thrown onto Hicham.
L’Abidine keeps the tension high by not giving too much away too soon. My own idea of who the culprit could be changed several times, and I know others around me felt the same. The culture difference between the bereft parents asks the audience to examine its prejudices too; yet at the same time the trauma is a human one, and you’re rooting for things to work out for everyone.
In the tradition of thrillers there’s an abundance of chases – in cars, on foot, even across the rooftops of Tunis, which keeps the excitement high. And the locations look fabulous too – the streets of the Medina, the backdrop of ferries on the sea and the sun-drenched streets are perfect in providing the atmosphere of being somewhere a bit different – exactly how mum Emily is feeling. We’ve seen her beautiful English country mansion home already and this is a world away, and her lack of language skills also means that she can’t always keep up with what is happening, adding to her anxiety.
As the audience was being evicted from the cinema to make way for the next screening, I was able to quickly chat with L’Abidine on the way out, and established that the film does not yet have distribution in the UK – I hope this is resolved soon, as it is a genuinely tense and intricate thriller with a great cast which deserves to be more widely seen.
Sophia plays at Manchester Film Festival (19th – 29th 2026).
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