“I want to understand more the women in the family because I am a woman, I have a girl, because this is how I am, how I function – what can I say,” says Egyptian director Marianne Khoury in her film as she addresses the late renowned Egyptian director Youssef Chahine, to whom she refers to in her film as ‘Uncle Joe’. In her latest award-winning autobiographical documentary film, Khoury explores four generations of her family’s female lineage through intimate conversations she has with her daughter (Sara Shazli), as well as other family members, and an extensive amount of various archival material. Jumping between seemingly camera-phone-recorded conversations she has with her daughter to black and white family photos, Khoury provides audiences with a moving narrative of her family’s trivial past and present. She focuses more so on the women of her family, taking us through the personal journeys of her grandmother – to whom she refers to as Nona – and her mother Iris – interjecting herself and her own daughter throughout the film. The conversations in the film tackle big questions and subjects in life – from death and…
‘Let’s Talk’ Review: an Intimate Conversation Around One Family’s Female Lineage
January 24, 2020
