The Tribe

Description

There are “silent” movies, and then there’s Ukrainian director Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s spellbinding, one-of-a-kind drama in which not a single syllable is spoken or a single line of dialogue is subtitled. From the moment that the film’s hero—a troubled teenager named Sergey (Grigoriy Fesenko)—enters a school for the deaf, viewers find themselves immersed in a world where sign language is the only form of communication. And as this new student quickly discovers, words aren’t necessary when quick wits and quicker fists are the only things that the institution’s insular criminal hierarchy respects. Once Sergey literally fights his way into the inner circle that rules the school, he’s awash in cash, drugs, sex and power. He also finds himself forming an attachment to the comely Anna (Yana Novikova), a female pupil who prostitutes herself to fund the group’s illegal activities—a relationship that seems destined to push Sergey to the edge of violence. A tour de force of expressive, explosive cinema, The Tribe has generated talk on the festival circuit since its prize-winning premiere at Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique last year, and with good reason. Slaboshpytskiy’s feature debut immediately bypasses any suggestion of gimmickry and goes straight for the jugular, presenting a Lord of the Flies-like world of social Darwinism that’s as brutal as it is strangely beautiful. It’s proof that you don’t need the sound of characters speaking to make a masterpiece—you simply need vision. —David Fear

Film Details