Foreign Tongue

The third feature to be directed by Sarajevo-born Boris Mojsovski, Foreign Tongue begins as it intends to go on, with a quote attributed to Carl Jung: “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” If you’ve read much Jung, even in translation, it may occur to you that this doesn’t sound like him, and there’s a reason for that. It’s a popular conflation of a comment he once made to Goethe with a line actually taken from the works of Joseph Campbell. This is a film with an interest in false impressions, the social consequences of the desire to go along with the crowd, and the ease with which we project our own assumptions onto those we admire.

Carl Jung (Greg Bryk, an inspired casting choice) speaks to Kathy (Kimberly-Sue Murray) in her dreams. He points out that he’s imaginary, but still she seeks his advice. We, meanwhile, get to know her first through the concise device of the dating profile she’s recording, in which she describes herself as working in recruitment, liking music, and looking for someone kind, grounded and smart who doesn’t make her feel like an alien. This quest proves to be difficult, to the point where she resorts to speed dating, becoming something of cliché in romcoms and an opportunity to snipe at people which somewhat spoils the flavour. Everything changes, however, when, during this event, Kathy trips and hits her head.

Foreign Accent Syndrome is a rare disorder which sometimes emerges in stroke patients: a distortion of pronunciation often associated by listeners with a particular language. Kathy has, we are told, suffered an ischaemic stroke as a consequence of her injury, and when she awakens from a coma she is speaking differently. The medical detail surrounding all of this is wildly inaccurate, but that’s not altogether unreasonable – Mojsovski aims to maintain an upbeat mood. At any rate, it is implied that Kathy has acquired the accent of Visnja (Cynthia Ashperger), the Bosnian immigrant cleaning her hospital ward – and who subsequently takes her under her wing. A frustrated actress, Visnja responds to Kathy’s difficulty in explaining her situation to people, or getting them to take it seriously, by creating a whole new identity and pretending to be Bosnian herself.

At first this seems easy enough, especially as Kathy is one of those unlikely characters who only has one friend (who also happens to be her boss), so there’s little chance of her being caught out. Visnja’s involvement makes the appropriation of minority experience a little less uncomfortable for viewers, and there is a good deal of authentically Bosnian-Canadian community experience baked into the film. Kathy’s little adventure proves enlightening for her, as she comes to understand, with horror, the sorts of discrimination and prejudice that immigrants to Western countries experience every day. Once she meets somebody special, however, it’s all suddenly more complicated. How can she tell David (Steve Byers), whom she is falling in love with, that her whole identity is a lie?

Murray does a good job of attracting sympathy and Mojsovski tries to show us that she’s a good person by having her use her professional skills to help members of an immigrant support group. She also has an issue with alcohol which might make her impulsive behaviour more understandable. As time goes on she seems to realise that she’s made a mistake and starts looking for a way out. Still, this is a film that will divide people. Does she really deserve to be forgiven? There’s little real sense that she’s earned it. She’s not ready to explain herself, perhaps because even she’s not really sure of the logic of her actions. All this feels realistic enough, but struggles when it comes up against the soft focus sweetness of romcom logic, and as a result the ending doesn’t really gel.

Foreign tongue is distinctive and interesting, with well drawn characters and some important things to say. It can be difficult to like, however, and in this genre, that’s a problem. It feels rather as though the writers had fun building up their story but then couldn’t see a way out. What it does do effectively is establish Mojsovski as a talent worth paying attention to.

Reviewed on: 13 Oct 2026