Greetings again from the darkness. The risk a filmmaker runs by producing a documentary to make sense of their own family is that it might easily turns into family therapy and/or personal therapy. However, in this case, it appears that’s exactly what Colette Ghunim was trying to do. She never had the close bond with her parents that she desperately wanted, so she set out to find out why those emotional defense mechanisms were in place. As with any therapy, the hope is that things get better, while the possibility exists that things get worse.
We first see Colette in a family video at Christmas in 1977. A grown Colette is not only the director of this film, she’s also the narrator … and she spent five plus years on the project. Her mother Iza is of Mexican descent, while her father Hosni was born in Palestine. Colette states she and her older brother Ramsey lived what appeared to be a typical suburban sitcom style childhood in Schaumburg, Illinois. Her complaint is that she never felt especially close to either of her parents, despite admitting they simply wanted to provide an American upbringing to the kids. Dad Hosni wanted to be a director, so he was rarely without a camera – providing plenty of clips of the kids from their childhood. Some of those clips show Mom Iza and Colette exchanging glances that carried silent messages.
Remarkably, Colette arranges a couple of family trips so that the parents can re-trace their roots. A trip to Palestine (Safed) finds Hosni emotional, despite cloudy memories of his time as a four-year-old, escaping war with his family. The sojourn to Mexico not only allows Iza to experience the joy of locating a childhood home, but also the pain of learning just how much her mother sacrificed in taking the kids from a dangerous environment. The emotions are rampant and that includes Colette’s own reactions.
Family dynamics are often bumpy, and we can’t help but wonder if Colette’s project was more for her than for her parents. Clearly, it was difficult for all. As viewers, we feel like eavesdroppers most of the time, and intruders some of the time.
Opens in theaters September 18, 2026 in NYC and September 25th in Los Angeles.
Movie Reviews from the Dark 