After watching “Shiva Baby,” you’ll either have a headache or a stomachache. It definitely won’t leave you without emotion or pain.

If after reading the headline you think the author has lost their mind, and all film genres were invented long ago, you definitely haven’t seen Shiva Baby (released in some territories under the odd localized title “Shalom, Papik!”). Emma Seligman has crafted a genuine suspense comedy. It’s a film where anxiety never lets up for a moment, where the screen exudes not forced but real tension, yet you laugh till you cry. Yes, that’s exactly how she blended seemingly incompatible ingredients into a potent cocktail, giving the world one of the most unconventional films of the year.

A Setup Woody Allen Would Envy

A young woman named Danielle (Rachel Sennott) is forced to attend a shiva, a Jewish mourning ritual after a funeral. Not only does she have no idea who died, but she also runs into her girlfriend (Molly Gordon), with whom she’s in a complicated relationship, along with other unexpected acquaintances. 

From the very start, “Shiva Baby” turns into an endless string of comedic situations built around Jewish traditions, generational differences (a universally familiar phenomenon long dubbed the “generation gap” in the West), and Danielle’s secrets, in which she’s tangled up to her ears. It remains a mystery until the very end whether she’ll manage to escape the mess she’s so deeply gotten herself into.

Absurdity Taken to the Extreme

Surely everyone is familiar with those family gatherings where adult relatives pester you with questions, offer unsolicited advice, teach you about life, and try to impose their worldview. This is handled with extreme irony in the film “Shiva Baby.” While the jokes on this theme might initially seem a bit shallow and only prompt a slight smile, as the story unfolds, they grow increasingly absurd, outlandish, and hilarious.

While in cinema we’ve previously encountered concepts like “hermetic detective” or “hermetic thriller,” “Shiva Baby” is a “hermetic comedy.” The viewer, along with the protagonist, becomes almost a hostage in a small anthill from which escape is impossible by choice, and is thus forced to laugh again and again at the absurdity and unpredictability of the situations. And even though the saying “It’s both laughable and sinful” has Russian, not Jewish, origins, it couldn’t describe what’s happening any better.

Should You Watch the Film “Shiva Baby”?

The film’s only significant issue is that if you don’t pick up on the irony and wit of the author (Seligman is both the director and screenwriter of the film) with which she tells the story, it might come across as strange, incomprehensible, or even boring. If you accept the rules of the game, however, you might not only see yourself in Danielle but also experience a whole spectrum of emotions alongside her.

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