While waiting at the airport for her husband, Aya (Sarah Adler) is mistaken for someone else. Intrigued, she decides to pick up a complete stranger (Ulrich Thomsen) on a whim. Their encounter sparks an unexpected intimacy that unsettles Aya’s sense of certainty and awakens a yearning she neither fully understands nor knows how to fulfill. Her quiet search for meaning unfolds in a hotel room, a customer service chat and in subtle disruptions to her daily routine, as we are taken through a woman’s delicate and honest search for something meaningful.

In Dead Language, directors Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun expand their Oscar-nominated short Aya into a tender, quietly powerful feature about longing — longing for connection, for purpose, for something beyond the confines of everyday life. Sarah Adler delivers a luminous performance, allowing us to inhabit Aya’s emotions with minimal dialogue. Her portrayal resonates with honesty, inviting us to feel Aya’s inner conflicts and unspoken desires.—Marina Gandour