#TJFF2024 Review: Unspoken

By John Corrado

The 2024 Toronto Jewish Film Festival runs from May 30th to June 9th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here.

Noam Stein (Charlie Korman) is a closeted teenager keeping his sexuality a secret from his Orthodox family and community. After his grandfather dies, he discovers a love letter among his belongings, that seems to have been written to him by another man. Noam begins to question if his Opa, a Holocaust survivor who instilled in him a love of Broadway musicals, was secretly gay.

While Noam’s mother (Katherine Kamhi) refuses to talk about it, he begins to investigate on his own with classmate Jonah (Michael Zapesotsky), as part of a school project on Holocaust survivors. Noam is under a lot of pressure. Everyone expects him to date his best friend Miriam (Liz Richman), and his best friend Zach (Victor Kallett) uses “gay” as a pejorative. So the possibility of his beloved grandfather having been in love with another man spurs a deep interest in him

Written and directed by Jeremy Borison in his feature directorial debut, Unspoken is a very engaging film that finds fresh angles from which to tell both a Holocaust story and a “coming out” story. The film explores the somewhat hidden history of LGBTQ+ people in the Holocaust, while also telling a personal story about Jewish identity and coming to terms with your own sexuality.

Balancing being a portrait of how students learn about the Holocaust, and an introduction to the persecution of gay people in Nazi Germany, the film unfolds as a bit of a mystery that becomes more complex as it goes along. Borison tenderly handles each of these subsequent plot developments. The film is guided by Korman’s sensitive performance as Noam, who portrays the pressure of having to keep his own identity a secret, while developing feelings for Jonah.

Especially at a time of increased antisemitism and even Holocaust denialism entering the mainstream due to a lack of education, films like Unspoken are even more important. It’s an excellent coming of age film overall, with strong performances from the young cast, solid writing, and interesting twists in the story that allow it to deliver an emotional impact. A beautifully done film.