FAMILY International Documentary Competition

Sami Saif was eight years old when his father fled the constraints of family life, leaving Sami and his brother, Thomas, to their incompetent, alcoholic mother.

Twenty years later, following two tragedies that have made his family even smaller, Sarni decides he must locate his father and the rest of his unknown family. He has a lot of questions as he seeks the reason behind his father’s disappearance and the person genetically responsible for his skinny legs. Accompanied by his patient, camera-wielding girlfriend, Sarni tracks his father from Copenhagen to Yemen, discovering in the process an enormous family of strangers. Sarni Saif was eight years old when his father fled the constraints of family life, leaving Sarni and his brother, Thomas, to their incompetent, alcoholic mother.

Beautifully shot by Phie Ambo, with a remarkable original score by Soren Hyldgaard, FAMILY is a masterful document of Sami’s hilarious, often painful struggle to break through the barriers of language and separation.