In a Whisper (À voix basse) (بيّت الحسّ)

😀 In a Whisper (À voix basse) (بيّت الحسّ) (في همسة), dir. Leyla Bouzid (ليلى بوزيد), 2026, France/‌Tunisia, 113 min., in French and Maghrebi (Tunisian) Arabic with English subtitles
Sunday, June 21, 2026, 8:30 PM, Roxie Theater
Tuesday, June 23, 2026, 5:30 PM, New Parkway Theatre, Oakland

In a Whisper (À voix basse)
(بيّت الحسّ) (في همسة)

Frameline blurb: Lilia (newcomer Eya Bouteraa, إيا بوترع‎)‎ returns home to Tunisia following the sudden death of her uncle. Accompanying her is her girlfriend Alice, whom she keeps hidden away in a hotel while searching for the right moment to tell her family she is a lesbian. But Lilia’s queerness is only one of many secrets simmering beneath the surface.

As Lilia reunites with the family matriarchy — her grandmother, mother Wahida (played by the incomparable Hiam Abbass, هيام عباس‎),‎ and the other women in the family — they gather to mourn the death of her closeted gay uncle under circumstances that seem increasingly mysterious. His sexuality is an open secret everyone acknowledges through silence, but no one dares confront directly.

As tensions grow between Lilia and her girlfriend, who longs to be embraced as part of the family, Lilia becomes increasingly consumed by questions surrounding her uncle’s death. The parallels between his hidden life and her own force her to confront what can be lost when love is buried beneath secrecy. Her search for answers gradually exposes the unspoken fractures between herself and her mother, pushing Lilia toward a reckoning with how she wants to live… and whom she is willing to love openly.

In a Whisper — the third feature from Tunisian filmmaker Leyla Bouzid (ليلى بوزيد) (As I Open My Eyes (À peine j’ouvre les yeux) (على حلة عيني)‎)‎ — gracefully captures the contradictions within tense family dynamics to craft a frank, holistic portrait of queer identity that is culturally specific and nuanced in its portrait of generational silence, and the contradictions of love within a tightly bound family.

My take: A quick note about the title of the film: the primary title is the French, À voix basse, literally “in a low voice,” which is to say “in a whisper” (hence the international English title for the film). The movie poster gives the title in Arabic as بيّت الحسّ‎,‎ literally “the house of feeling,” but the Wikipedia article gives it as في همسة‎,‎ literally “in a whisper.”

The Arab world remains a dangerous place to be LGBTQ+, with societal oppression seeping into every aspect of daily life. Two years ago, we saw The Judgment (المحاكمة) (El Muhakamah) (Frameline48) showing some of the horror of being a gay man in Egypt. In In a Whisper, we shift to Tunisia and a lesbian protagonist, and also a not quite so horror-filled story, with even some bright moments of hope and light, although there are also more than a few dark overtones. The acting performances are strong and the story is solid, definitely worth a watch. Highly recommended.

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