‘Unleavened’ and the Haunting Weight of Tradition
Director Raina Jablon talks to the cast in preparation for a take on the set of Unleavened, the crew filmed on-location in Wayne, Pennsylvania and used anamorphic lenses combined with practical effects to transform a traditional Passover Seder into a surreal landscape of fractured reality. (Theodore Zinn/Jablon Films)
Raina Jablon’s Unleavened blends Passover ritual with surreal horror to expose the psychological toll of generational trauma.
Article by Jacob Borislow, Film and Culture Reporter
PHILADELPHIA - In the landscape of contemporary independent cinema, few themes offer as much rich, untapped soil as the intersection of ancient ritual and modern identity. Raina Jablon’s upcoming short film, Unleavened, which is currently in development, promises to be a visceral exploration of this exact crossroads, blending the intimacy of a kitchen-sink drama with the unsettling pulse of symbolic horror.
Set within the claustrophobic confines of a single Passover Seder in a small suburban neighborhood, Unleavened follows a Jewish family navigating the "unspoken history and unresolved hurt" that often bubbles beneath the surface of holiday gatherings. The catalyst for the film’s conflict is deceptively simple: a daughter’s tattoo.
In many Jewish traditions, tattoos are a flashpoint for debates over bodily autonomy and religious law. In Jablon’s script, this act of self-expression becomes the spark for a generational wildfire. As the family argues, the film pivots from grounded realism into the surreal as the home begins to manifest subtle, haunting iterations of the Ten Plagues. It is a bold narrative device that externalizes the internal rot of family trauma, suggesting that the plagues we endure today are often of our own making.
One of the most promising aspects of Unleavened is the technical intentionality behind its production. Director of Photography Jillian Metzker and director Raina Jablon have opted for anamorphic lenses, a choice usually reserved for sweeping epics.
In the context of a domestic short, this is a brilliant stylistic move. Anamorphic glass is known for its bokeh and a slight distortion at the edges of the frame. This visual unsettling mirrors the script’s progression, where the familiar walls of a family home begin to feel alien and fractured as the supernatural elements take hold. The team is leaning into practical effects and meticulous production design to ensure that the magical realism of the film feels tactile rather than digital.
Unleavened arrives at a time when Jewish creators are increasingly moving away from monolithic representations of faith, opting instead for morally gray characters and complex explorations of heritage.
During a set visit in January, it was clear that the attention to detail and tradition was at the forefront of Jablon’s vision. Jablon said that, “[Unleavened] explores how trauma informs the way we interact with our loved ones, our culture and ourselves.” Jablon wants the viewer to ask the quest of “[...] what happens when we inherit [the stories of our ancestors] and what happens when we interpret those stories differently from our parents?”
The film asks a hauntingly universal question: What do we inherit, and what do we carry with us even when we try to grow beyond it? By centering the story on a queer, Jewish perspective and focusing on generational wounds, the creative team, largely composed of exceptional talent from across the country, is positioning this project as a necessary piece of modern cultural dialogue.
While Unleavened is still in its post-production phase having just completed filming on Philadelphia’s historic Main Line community, the conceptual framework is undeniably strong. It treats the Passover Seder not just as a backdrop, but as a living, breathing character capable of reflecting the anxieties of the people sitting at the table.
If the final product manages to balance its symbolic horror with the raw, lived-in performances the script demands, Unleavened could be one of the most striking short films of the coming year; a cinematic reminder that while we may try to leave the past behind, some traditions have a way of following us home.