Ungentle
Director: Onyeka Igwe, Huw Lemmey
Writer: Huw Lemmey
Cast: Ben Whishaw
Seen on: 24.11.2025

Plot:
The narrator (Ben Whishaw) tells us about his life as a gay man and a British spy in the early to mid-20th century. The politics of sex and relationship as well as questions of national loyalty intertwine, illuminating the fraught position of the narrator who needs to navigate them.

Ungentle is an unsual, intriguing film with many interesting thoughts, as well as beautiful language and imagery.

I didn’t know what to expect of Ungentle, the description I had being rather short. I wasn’t even sure whether what we heard was fictional or not, because it feels so real and accurate. But it is not a documentary film, although it is obviously extensively researched and grounded in history.

I have never given spies much thought, I have to admit, gay or otherwise. But I thought that the film draws some interesting parellels in the secrecy that both required at the time, the feeling of leading a double life, of meeting strangers for brief moments of interaction. It also raises the question of where our loyalties belong, and what makes a traitor.

The film consists of a autobiographical narration speckled with philosophical thoughts, wonderfully put into words by Lemmey and brought to life by Ben Wishaw’s narration. I will admit that the audio part of the film worked better for me than the visual part that has slow pans over apparently significant landmarks – but the significance often escaped me. While I am usually not one for just listening (audiobooks or podcast really give me a hard time), in this case I found myself mostly ignoring the images, though the film was really beautifully shot.

Overall, it was a very interesting, experimental film that I would like to read in written form. It is good that it’s not feature length, but gets ist runtime just right to remain engaging and not become tiresome despite the density of the material. I really liked it.

Summarizing: absolutely worth seeing.