The Tribe (18.)
Directed by Miroslav Slaboshpitsky.
Starring Grigory Fesenko, Yana Novikova, Rosa Babiy, Alexander Dsiadevich and Yaroslav Biletskiy. 130 mins.
Readers frustrated by the prominent coverage of subtitled foreign films rejoice; this week we have a Ukrainian film entirely in sign language. No subtitles. No spoken dialogue. No translation. For The Tribe you are on your own. A new student (Fesenko) arrives at a boarding school for deaf children and quickly falls in with a gang that steal, rob, bully and run their own little prostitute ring. Slaboshpitsky shoots this all in long unbroken shots that generally last a minute or two. The result is a striking piece of cinema, and a foul vision of humanity.
In the first scene, the school seems like a decent enough place with the younger student handing their teachers flowers but after that we see one scene in a classroom, where a teacher is struggling to control an unruly student. After that civilisation and any sense of social order discretely make their exits. The school is drafty and semi-derelict, and the strong prey on the weak, inside and outside the school, with impunity.
Slaboshpitsky's technique, (a kind of gritty, unpretentious Bela Tarr) is devastatingly effective. The lack of edits allows the emotions of the interactions to flow to such an extent that the story is easy to follow and draws us in to their world, that is a remove from our own. It also makes for a harrowing watch, particularly in the last hour where there are some real time atrocities that happen right in front of us. (Forgive the spoiler, but there is a long and merciless abortion scene which you may want to think twice about putting yourself through, plus several other wince-making acts of violence.)
The Tribe is a silent film, with sound. We can hear what the characters (and the cast) can't, but the quid pro quo is that a hearing audience are denied access to their communication. Why? Looking at my notes it seems full of lines that could be seen as patronising. For example the film shows us a strange Lee Evans world, a society of mime. Sign language is a rich and complex form of communication but without translation it just seems like a parodic visualisation of our verbal language. For example the furious gesturing when the two girls are arguing, or the early scene where we can see a student disrupting a lesson.
To the viewer with no knowledge of sign language The Tribe plays like a parody of human interaction. For us this is a world without nuance or subtlety, everything is just brute force and blunt desires. It is a beautifully expressive piece of cinema but ultimately a reductive view of people. It doesn't leave us with much.
The Tribe (18.)
Directed by Miroslav Slaboshpitsky.
Starring Grigory Fesenko, Yana Novikova, Rosa Babiy, Alexander Dsiadevich and Yaroslav Biletskiy. 130 mins.
Readers frustrated by the prominent coverage of subtitled foreign films rejoice; this week we have a Ukrainian film entirely in sign language. No subtitles. No spoken dialogue. No translation. For The Tribe you are on your own. A new student (Fesenko) arrives at a boarding school for deaf children and quickly falls in with a gang that steal, rob, bully and run their own little prostitute ring. Slaboshpitsky shoots this all in long unbroken shots that generally last a minute or two. The result is a striking piece of cinema, and a foul vision of humanity.
In the first scene, the school seems like a decent enough place with the younger student handing their teachers flowers but after that we see one scene in a classroom, where a teacher is struggling to control an unruly student. After that civilisation and any sense of social order discretely make their exits. The school is drafty and semi-derelict, and the strong prey on the weak, inside and outside the school, with impunity.
Slaboshpitsky's technique, (a kind of gritty, unpretentious Bela Tarr) is devastatingly effective. The lack of edits allows the emotions of the interactions to flow to such an extent that the story is easy to follow and draws us in to their world, that is a remove from our own. It also makes for a harrowing watch, particularly in the last hour where there are some real time atrocities that happen right in front of us. (Forgive the spoiler, but there is a long and merciless abortion scene which you may want to think twice about putting yourself through, plus several other wince-making acts of violence.)
The Tribe is a silent film, with sound. We can hear what the characters (and the cast) can't, but the quid pro quo is that a hearing audience are denied access to their communication. Why? Looking at my notes it seems full of lines that could be seen as patronising. For example the film shows us a strange Lee Evans world, a society of mime. Sign language is a rich and complex form of communication but without translation it just seems like a parodic visualisation of our verbal language. For example the furious gesturing when the two girls are arguing, or the early scene where we can see a student disrupting a lesson.
To the viewer with no knowledge of sign language The Tribe plays like a parody of human interaction. For us this is a world without nuance or subtlety, everything is just brute force and blunt desires. It is a beautifully expressive piece of cinema but ultimately a reductive view of people. It doesn't leave us with much.
