'Foreign Tongue' Review: A Bold Dramedy That Questions Anti-Immigrant Sentiments

Foreign Tongue takes a very odd approach to question the world about the growing anti-immigrant sentiment. Directed by Boris Mojsovski and co-written with Cynthia Ashperger, the film follows Kathy as she tackles unhappiness, singlehood, and profound loneliness with the help of alcohol. She is seen to be trying various ways to get a boyfriend so that she can break this cycle, but nothing seems to be working. Eventually, she finds herself at a speed-dating event. Since the candidates there don’t interest her, she focuses on the drinks. When she goes overboard with the liquor, she trips, hits her head on a table, and knocks herself out. When she regains consciousness, she starts talking with a very heavy Bosnian accent. Dr. Carrap, the neurologist, says that this is an extremely rare condition called the Foreign Accent Syndrome (it’s a real thing, I looked it up). Usually, it goes away on its own, but in some cases, the effect is permanent. So, Kathy essentially becomes an “immigrant” to the people around her and to herself. The only person who lowkey understands what she is going through is Visnja, the nurse who tended to her at the hospital she was admitted to, and the community of immigrants who face alienation on a daily basis. Now, as Kathy finds friends, love, and happiness through the therapy sessions she attends, she starts wondering if she wants to fix her accent problem at all.

Foreign Tongue is, for the lack of a better word, tricky. Boris and Cynthia’s hearts are in the right place. You can clearly see where they are coming from and what they want to say to a world that’s becoming incredibly conservative and close-minded. But the route that they take is quite unconventional, and they are really trusting their audience to go beyond Kathy’s surface-level observations on racism; which is why they are not doing any kind of hand-holding. Without giving away any spoilers, the “exotic” label that certain White immigrants get is objectively creepy and inappropriate. At the same time, there is an allure to it because you are treated in a way that you might just appreciate. And at that point you have to ask if you should accept that kind of racism because it comes with certain privileges or if you should reject it because you think racism in all forms is bad. For the record, the movie is a dramedy because you have a Canadian who has been physiologically forced to act like a Bosnian. Hence, it never gets “too real.” There is an air of silliness to it. However, all the characters, especially Kathy and Visnja feel real and relatable enough to keep you invested in the journey. The story is structured quite linearly; and I understand why. The movie is already challenging the audience with its gimmick; if it starts pulling off any literary stunts–other than Carl Jung bit–it might lose everyone’s attention.

One of the most important aspects of a film like Foreign Tongue is its tone. It might seem easy on the surface because it’s just a bunch of people talking to one another in closed rooms. But when the topic of their conversation is a pretty scathing criticism of anti-immigrant sentiments, you have to treat it as a tight-rope walk; especially in this environment. I don’t want to sound like a fearmonger but, it’s true, free speech and freedom of expression have really taken a dip in the past decade or so. Until and unless you are standing on solid ground or you have the luxury to weather the storm, you have to be pretty careful. With that said, I do find it interesting that this is the topic that Boris has chosen for his third feature film directorial, which he has made almost two decades after the feature film he directed. He has served as the cinematographer for TV shows like Taken, 12 Monkeys, Knightfall, Titans, The Madness, The Abandons, and I Will Find You. So, it does make me wonder what Boris has witnessed in the industry and how much of it he is channeling through these characters. For the record, this is just me projecting onto the film; maybe there’s some underlying commentary about the state of the country he has worked in for so long, maybe there isn’t. I guess we will never know.

Boris does bring his years of experience to making Foreign Tongue flow really smoothly. The cinematography, the editing, the costume design–it’s all quite competent. The only weak spot in its armor is the animated background in the Carl Jung sequences; they just felt off. I don’t want to say those two words, but you know what I’m thinking about; and it’s just a suspicion until proven otherwise. The performances from the cast are pretty good. There’s a very thin line between bravery and stupidity and if you erase that line, it’s difficult to define which is which. And that’s probably the only way to describe everything that Kimberly-Sue Murray does. Either she is insanely confident in what she’s doing or she doesn’t think too much about what she is doing and she just goes for it. Because how else do you pull off that accent throughout the length of the film without looking like an idiot? This might seem like an exaggeration, but it’s truly one of the most mind-boggling artistic swings I have seen. If the movie was a parody, I probably would have heaped this much praise on her; but since everything in her is played with such sincerity, I have to commend her audacity. Cynthia Ashperger (yes, she’s acting in it too), Steve Byers, Greg Bryk, Cas Anvar, and the rest of the supporting cast are tremendous. But yeah, Murray is something else. All in all, I had a great time watching this thought-provoking film. I do hope people check it out because, more than ever before, we need to understand that we are being divided on the basis of our culture, language, race, and other arbitrary parameters so that we can never unite against the true evils that plague our society. You don’t have to develop FSA to understand that the immigrants around you are human; you just need to have basic empathy to break the barriers that have been put before you.