If the mere idea of someone searching for his roots, for family that he has never met, touches a powerful chord in your heart, then Family may have some chance at achieving the effect it's looking for. But if you don't come to the film predisposed to find the material compelling, this is a film that will leave you completely cold.

Family is an autobiographical documentary about filmmaker Sami Saif's quest to find his father, who abandoned him and disappeared when Sami was still quite young. Family certainly has the potential to be an interesting documentary, as it touches on issues like the nature of family, the existence or non-existence of a connection between family members who have never met each other, the problems of dealing with cultural differences (Saif was raised in Denmark but has Arab roots), and the responsibilities that come with being part of a family.

However, the voyeuristic style of filmmaking that Saif has chosen here, with his girlfriend Phie Ambo behind the camera, ends up just skating along on top of those issues and never really delving into them. Though we don't know anything about Saif, and certainly have not had a chance to form a connection with him, we see him bring the camera into various corners of his life, tracking every moment as he works to find his father. It's an uncomfortable mix: on the one hand, there's the sense of a too-immediate intimacy, like when a stranger sitting next to you on the bus starts telling you his troubles, but on the other hand, there's always a hint that Saif is a little too conscious of the camera, perhaps playing up to it.

Structurally, Family gets off to a bad start with a long scene involving Saif arguing with his girlfriend. We don't know what they're arguing about, or even who these people are, so the effect is simply unpleasant. As the film progresses, a few random facts here and there build up so that we get the idea that Saif is searching for his father, but these are presented in a very haphazard manner. In the meantime, we're left to watch scenes that have no particular relevance to anything, as far as we know; the result is off-putting rather than intriguing.

In the end, the final analysis is that Family is just not particularly interesting to watch. I'm sure it was a challenge to film, and that a lot of feeling went into it, but the final product stands as very much a personal piece, in the sense of not being accessible or meaningful to anyone but the artist. Family never evokes interest in either the final goal of Saif's search, or the process of the search itself.

The DVD

Video

Family has been given as good a treatment on DVD as is possible: the film is presented in an anamorphically enhanced 1.85:1 widescreen transfer, and the print is clean and free of flaws. That said, however, Family really can't merit more than an average score, because the image quality is still lackluster. Filmed with what looks like a home video camera, the footage is extremely soft and blurry; even tight close-up shots are very fuzzy, and longer-distance shots are extremely blurry. There's also a lot of grain in the image. The fact that it's due to the original material, and not the transfer, doesn't change the fact that Family looks pretty terrible. Thanks to the clean transfer, it's watchable, but that's about it.

The English subtitles are optional. Rather oddly, however, they run through the whole film, even when the people are speaking English, and on top of that, the subtitles don't quite match the actual dialogue in English.

Audio

Family's mixed Danish/English soundtrack is generally satisfactory. The dialogue is reasonably easy to understand, though at times it sounds muffled, especially when several people are speaking at the same time, or when the camera is a bit farther away from the scene than usual. Optional English subtitles are included.

Extras

The special features section contains two music videos by Saif's brother, a trailer for the film, and trailers for two other Document Collection films, Horns and Halos and The Cola Conquest. An insert in the DVD case gives a brief statement from the filmmakers about their project.

Final thoughts

Family may have been an important project for Sami Saif, with its autobiographical content tracing his search for his father, but as a film, it utterly fails to make a connection with viewers. If you are fascinated by the topic of people searching for their birth parents, then Family may be worth a rental, but as a general recommendation, I'll just say "skip it."