A Little Family Conversation on AllMovie

Not unlike Michael Apted's Up series and Helena Trestikova's Marriage Études, Hélène Lapiower's sociological documentary A Little Family Conversation culls footage from a seven-year period of production, and thus enables the audience to witness the very deliberate personal growth of its subjects over time. Lapiower delves into the history and interrelationships of her family, a Jewish clan that migrated from Poland to France nearly a half-century prior. However, as occasionally happens, the project had such personal resonance for the director that it grew and broadened its ambitions in Lapiower's hands, ultimately extending beyond the scope of its immediate subjects and meditating on such themes as personal identity, familial identity and the generation gap.