Lilia (newcomer Eya Bouteraa) 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), 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 (As I Open My Eyes) — 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.