Dead Language

Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun’s fearlessly original and smart Dead Language (a highlight in the Viewpoints programme of the 24th edition of the Tribeca Festival), evolving out of their Oscar-nominated short, Aya, begins in the arrival area of an airport, where Aya (Sarah Adler of Samuel Maoz’s Foxtrot, opposite Lior Ashkenazi, and Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette), instead of picking up her husband Aviad (Yehezkel Lazarov, former star of Batsheva Dance Company) pretends to be the driver for the unwitting Mr. Esben (Ulrich Thompsen of Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen), who is in Jerusalem on a business trip as a lighting designer.

Lars Eidinger, playing a hotel guest with the sang froid of a werewolf, at first not interested in whatever Aya is offering, functions as uncanny catalyst to desires as the plot unfolds in unpredictable ways, better left to enjoy without prior knowledge. Filled with what-if-situations that are played out, Dead Language brings to life possibilities most people might perhaps have thought about, but never dared to experience. Breaking social conventions of interactions is dangerous and in our exceedingly online world, flesh and blood derring-do in approaching strangers is rare.

Both words of the title loom large together and apart and are sprinkled into the smallest verbal and non-verbal exchanges. From the Trappist monastery with its vow of silence, that captured Esben’s curiosity from afar, to Depeche Mode’s song Enjoy The Silence, setting the tone for an exceptional coda dance scene, the unspoken is just as important as the spoken word. A hotel bar in Prague, equally Franz Kafka and David Lynch territory, turns the dance into a cathartic moment similar to how Wilhelm Sasnal uses ESG’s Dance, (produced by Ed Bahlman, founder of 99 Records) in his film The Assistant (based on the novel by Robert Walser, greatly admired by Kafka). In both cases, music and movement open doors to a new beginning with fresh dangers ahead.

Aviad, a linguist whose latest book is not called Live Or Die: Conversations From The Grave, as jokingly stated by the couple’s friends, but Dead Or Alive: Dead Languages Speak To Us, whereas Aya works at a company that uses AI to monitor employees how to maximize their behavior while on the phone for sales pitches.

Esben, who tries not to imagine things before he sees them, holds two pieces of advice from his father to heart: “Never talk to strangers and always bet on the same horse!” Only to violate both in his interactions with Aya, who pilfers these points of guidance and pretends they were those of her own father, when speaking to her husband. Together with a sudden love for horse racing, this arrises Aviad’s suspicions, as a perceptive spouse, proud to be able to pass the “bag test” spontaneously invented at a dinner out with friends. Aya’s feelings may be different about the fact that he possesses such detailed knowledge of her wallet’s content.

Reshuffling the syntax of couple behaviour may be the only way to bring the relationship back from the dead. This is a film of missed appointments and of 'letters' sent, to paraphrase Lacan, that despite all odds, always arrive at their destination.

Reviewed on: 14 Jun 2025