What happens when a large, ununited family comes together due to an exceptional circumstance, such as the death of a member? That’s exactly what director Ayten Amin delivers in The Shanabs. The film, which starts from a traditional conflict between two different generations; a mother and her daughter, escalates to include the generational differences in a large family, in an unprecedented comedic way, especially when we take into account that the family members are coming together following the death of someone, not for a happy occasion at all. In her third feature, Ayten continues to unprecedentedly explore the intertwining family relations as she did in Villa 69 (2016), and then in Souad (2020), which explored the relationship between two sisters, one of whom completes the other’s journey. In The Shanabs, she expands to include several sisters who come together for several days, and we see how the differences between these sisters not only affect them but also the next generations of their children. The sisters, who seem a bit conservative, are forced to confront their children, each of whom has their own inclinations and ideas that are likely to conflict with family traditions. This film differs from the director’s previous works in its clear comedic sensibility, and its relative deviation from the realism that characterized Souad. With the large number of characters in The Shanabs, it is difficult to predict where the laughter will come from, or in what form. This is certainly due to the distinctive casting of the film actors, each of whom is carefully picked for their role. The film ends with the viewer feeling that they may not have been watching The Shanabs, but rather following – from a different perspective – several days in the life of their own family. Andrew Mohsen