Unspoken Review: BFI Flare Festival 2024
An Orthodox Jewish teenager feels a connection to his grandfather’s secret life in Unspoken
Noam is a closeted gay teenager living within the Orthodox Jewish community and attending an Orthodox school. He has no queer peers or family members, LGBTQ history is non-existent at his school, and those in his community seem to frequently suggest that Orthodox gay people just don’t exist. With no person to open up to, he feels his safest option is just to keep everything hidden.
When clearing out his recently deceased grandfathers’ belongings Noam finds a letter that suggests his grandfather may have been in love with a man before emigrating to America to escape the Holocaust. Feeling a sense of connection to his grandfather’s story, Noam and his school friend Jonah set out to find the truth about the mystery man in the letter, along the way learning just how much they haven’t been taught about the persecution of LGBTQ people during the Holocaust.
Unspoken is the debut feature film from writer/director Jeremy Borison, an Orthodox gay filmmaker whose work seeks to bridge the gap between religion and sexuality, challenging the widely held community belief that being openly queer and religious will result in being shunned. Borison also sought to bring to light an oft overlooked piece of history – packaged alongside his film are all sorts of resources to learn about the experiences of LGBTQ people during the Holocaust, including school lesson plans for much of the information Noam is not taught about in the film.
More than being just a religious film or a queer film, Unspoken is your classic coming of age story with relatable themes that many of us can identify with. Noam is a typical teenage boy, contending with awkward crushes, an increasingly strained relationship with his parents and worrying that he’s growing apart from his friends as he gets older. It’s also a recognisable ‘quest’ movie, Noam and Jonah having to hit both the books and the road to get to the bottom of a deep dark family secret.
An odd gripe I had with the film is that it feels like it should have been set slightly further back in the past, if only for reasons of authenticity. Unspoken is seemingly set in the present day, yet rather than do his research by simply googling things on the phone in his pocket, Noam is frequently creeping around libraries or into offices to look things up. It feels like a contrivance to create more situations where he could ‘get caught’ because honestly, what Gen Z kid is going to the library anymore? Set it 15-20 years ago and I’d have been fully on board with the idea that he had no choice but to look things up physically.
Still, I really appreciated that the narrative does not necessarily go the way you think it will. While Unspoken seemingly has a straightforward story, it’s not wrapped up with neat or easy answers to the mystery. Where Noam’s journey has been driven by his desire to know a family member better and therefore know himself better, he and the audience are encouraged not to be so insular in their thinking.
With a brilliant third act Borison drives home the message that a story shouldn’t need to relate directly to you, or your family, or your community for it to be important and to be recognised. Where Unspoken may prod the Jewish community to remember that they weren’t the only victims of the Holocaust, it can remind all of us to look up from our own lives and recognise the history and struggles of others.
A multifaceted gem of a coming-of-age film, Unspoken packs a surprising amount of feeling into a short run time while serving as an easy entry point to a piece of history that some may not have thought about before. Despite the sad subject matter, it ultimately feels like a hopeful film. Maybe the kids will be alright.
Unspoken is screening as part of the BFI Flare Film Festival from 14th March 2024, Wider release details have yet to be confirmed
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