Minyan (2020)

This is a sad, honest, grave, and erotic LGBT historical drama with convincing sex scenes, which was first screened at the Berlinale 2020. At the end of the 1980s, in Brooklyn, New York, a young man David who studies in a strict Orthodox yeshiva helps his grandfather to settle into the retirement home in their Russian-Jewish neighborhood (by the way, Russian speech is present in this film, alongside Yiddish and Hebrew) and unexpectedly finds a community by meeting two older gay men from East Village, who wisely help him discover himself. Meanwhile, the HIV epidemics starts raging in New York. As director Eric Steel describes his film, people from various urban minorities go through very similar ordeals, whether they are immigrants, Orthodox Jews, or gay people. Their life principles include sticking together (this is where the film gets its double meaning from - ‘Minyan’ is the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain religious obligations; apparently, in this film it also means the gay community David becomes part of), listening to others more and better, and finding answers to life’s challenges despite lack of opportunities.