Set in a school for deaf children, Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s brutal and compelling film is told completely in sign language, with no subtitles or dialogue, capturing the secret world of gangs and cruelty in a unique fashion.
Sydney Film Festival 2015 added the debut of Ukrainian writer/director/filmmaker Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s The Tribe as part of their growing list of foreign films, and it speaks emotion far louder than words. Set within a school for deaf children in Kiev, Ukraine, a new student (Grigoriy Fesenko) arrives at the campus only to discover the world of violent crime, pimps in a truck parking lot and lustful desires. The shocking and exhilarating drama is performed completely in sign language, with the absence of subtitles, dialogue or scores – allowing the picture to compel layers upon layers of meaning until its chilling end. This bizarre, yet beautifully controlled picture is worthy of more than 25 awards at many international film festivals and has left me with an unforgettable experience.
The new student arrives at a boarding school for deaf children and discovers that older kids are raising money for the school – but not just for good work charity. The business (which includes the school’s woodwork teacher) and its cash are also pimping two girls at a nighttime truck stop. The new student, who slowly works his way up the hierarchy of this brutal gang, falls in love with one of the girls (played by Yana Novikova) at the same moment her gang masters decide to send her and her other girlfriend to Italy on fraudulent visas for bigger money. This threatens the operation of the ‘tribe’ and slowly, the film uncovers the grueling consequences of love and betrayal. The love affair presents us the lone wolf stepping out of line and is dutifully punished by the rest of the pack. But the consequences are grim and chilling, and in one extended scene, I wanted to look away from the screen, with my hands covering my mouth in shock. The presentation of emotion is so powerful, you maintain concentration as you are forced to witness the capabilities of humans.
I was thoroughly impressed by the cinematography and editing of Valentyn Vasyanovych. In every frame, there was a continuous flow and I felt as if I was following each character without the disturbance of Hollywood related factors like CGI editing, multiple camera angles or thrilling explosives. It allowed the superb non-professional cast to feel natural and genuine within the environment. The film establishes the style of meticulous widescreen shots with alternating camera movements in long, fluid takes. What fascinates me the most is knowing the perspective of a deaf viewer and how Slaboshpytskiy’s film presents the impairment. But for those with little or no experience of sign language, The Tribe successfully captures the exhilarating and stimulating experience that demands and expects, more attention. At certain times, I was confused as to what was occurring in front of me – why were the older boys attacking the younger boys? What responsibilities did they have? This, therefore, makes every interaction a puzzle you want to solve and the ambiguity of every scene allows the film to heighten the viewer’s interaction rather than dull it.
The Tribe strangely reminded me of William Goulding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’ – the film evokes the same notions of violent bullies as rulers of a self-governing world as it is visually expressed in the everyday activities of the ‘tribe’. Despite its setting in a boarding school, there are hardly any classroom scenes. In fact, there are more shots of fistfights and parking lots that give the audience a sense of the brutality that exists within the school walls. And within all the confrontations of the performance in sign language, you will find no audible soundtrack. Instead, the sounds of footsteps against crushing ice, shoes squeaking on floors, gasps of pain and anger and whispers become the soundtrack, leaving you in an internal struggle of wanting the familiar but also enjoying the ‘eeriness’ of it all. Sergiy Stepanskiy’s sound design is thus, never less than fascinating.
The Tribe remarkably captures its characters stripped to its raw core, whilst still allowing them to retain their distinctiveness as individuals. Despite their operations within the fringes of society and a cruelly exploitative system, they are still humans – feeling, thinking, breathing and desperately clinging to their own place in a ruling order. These untrained actors performed with such intense eloquence. The purity of expression that The Tribe achieves leaves me speechless and silent.
Noelle Reyes 