Set against a cold backdrop of Brooklyn, Minyan tells the story of a young, gay Jewish man in 1980s New York.

Mild spoilers throughout!

Plagued by a sense of not belonging, David steadily separates from his community as he wrestles with his identity. Caught between the strict expectations of his Jewish family and his own sense of being, David yearns to break free and find where he belongs.

A slow burner through and through, Minyan begins with a funeral, setting up a core theme of loss for the film. Then, we delve into David’s conflict as we experience two sides of the character. He spends his days studying the Torah and obeying his overbearing father. By night though, David is drinking on street corners with his friends and casting longing glances at best friend Nathan.

It’s no surprise then that David descends into a path of self destruction.

Samuel H. Levine does a fantastic job in portraying David’s struggle to balance his faith and his sexuality. The expression on the young man’s face as he fulfills his duties shows that he would rather be absolutely anywhere else, and the look of despair as he watches his friends charm local girls captures his inner turmoil splendidly.

The main themes in Minyan are loss, regret and what to do with the time you have left. Whilst David is overcome with a sense of misplacement, the characters around him look back to the Holocaust and relive the pain and suffering that happened to them. The atrocities are mentioned throughout by the older Jewish characters, and it is their regret over what could have been that motivates David to forge his own path.

‘Memory is no substitute for love’

Much of David’s actions are influenced by the men around him. The aptly named Minyan (traditionally the minimum number of Jewish males required to represent a ‘community of Israel’ in prayer) is clearly influenced by author James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. The novel, which writer and director Eric Steel drops into the film several times, focuses on an American man named David in Paris and the relationships he has with other men in his life. 

Much like in Giovanni’s Room, David meets a bartender, Bruno. The two strike up a short-lived sexual relationship. And, as the older characters are haunted by the Holocaust, we glimpse Bruno’s pain at losing friends to AIDs and his frustration at David’s ignorance of their suffering. 

All in all though, Minyan is a story about community. At the start of the film David is lost, unsure of his place in the Jewish Quarter society. The pivotal moment for Minyan’s David comes when he discovers that the two established, elderly gentlemen, The Soldier and The Poet, are in a closeted relationship.

Seeing their happiness encourages him to explore his own identity as a gay man in New York’s infamous East Village. Finally able to let go of his inhibitions, David endangers himself but it is Bruno, another gay man, who ensures his safety. David wakes up the next morning, unharmed and untouched, because one member of a community has looked out for another. 

Is this what David has been looking for all along?

Minyan is a progressive tale that portrays not only two under-represented subcultures, but explores how they can co-exist. We see this through David as he walks within both communities in this fresh, coming of age drama.