In Jude Chehab’s directorial debut, Q, she explores the lives of her grandmother, her mother Hiba, and herself in relation to their Muslim faith. Employing beautiful cinematography, family photos and videos, and portrayals of their daily lives, Chehab creates an intimate and haunting family portrait.

While the documentary includes several of Jude’s family members, a lot of the focus is on her mother Hiba. Hiba is a devout Muslim who spent a lot of her life dedicated to an all-female religious group, led by a woman known as the Anisa. Despite spending so much of her life with the group, this part of Hiba’s life is kept mostly secret. We come to find out that she left the group, but the details of what led to this decision are for the most part unknown, with Hiba only hinting at what happened throughout the film.

Through archival home videos and photos, and family interviews, Jude offers some enlightenment to viewers. Her grandmother reveals Hiba’s initiation to the group, which pulled her away from her acceptance to medical school and her love for theater. Hiba became absolutely entranced with the group, and despite her dedication, her move to America seemed to cause a huge rift with her and the Anisa. This rift causes pain for Hiba, that continues to haunt her even after her departure from the group. The pain bleeds over to the rest of the family, which we can see through Jude’s interviews with her father.

Jude’s intergenerational approach to sharing this story successfully conveys the importance of their faith living life without regret despite trauma. While I enjoyed the film, I thought that it was building up to a big reveal, but this never fully resolved itself. In the end, Q has beautiful cinematography, but left a lot to be explored.

We give Q a 3.5/5.