Do you hear that sound? That is what nothing sounds like.
The funny thing about nothing is that, on this planet, it does not exist. Even
the deaf hear, through their fingertips.
I spent about ten years in the deaf world. I was
professionally an interpreter for the hearing impaired for that time. I
attended their churches, went to their parties, attended their classes, visited
deaf professors, went to their concerts (yes, they have concerts) and hung out
with students. And in all that time there is one word that I would never
describe the deaf world, which is silent. Every conversation is punctuated with
guttural and popping sounds. Their lives are filled with loud music, because
some hard of hearing folks can hear it, barely, and others can feel it. There
are hearing aids making loud pitched noises that the owner is unaware of. There
is always banging and loud pounding to get people's attention and because no
one is going to complain about the noise.
So the idea that The Tribe is mostly silent is the opposite
of what I expected. These deaf people are more like very active ghosts than
real deaf folks, more reminiscent of the shadows in Vampyr I just saw. And I
think it goes along with the point. At first, the decision to not translate the
sign language I thought was to make a film directed toward the deaf. But I know
ASL, and while the folks in the deaf school used a variant of ASL, it was
mostly unknown to me. Only the deaf from the region of Europe they are in could
make it all out. I got enough clues to know that most of the dialogue is
conversation about what is just about to happen, so no one is missing more than
nuances. And deaf folks couldn't get it anyway. Sometimes conversations are
filmed from their backs, so no one could read the signs. It's all artfully
done, but communication isn't the point.
In fact, it is the opposite of the point. What we have here
is a form of Meek's Cutoff, where the hearing audience can understand for a
couple hours what it is like to be deaf. There is a whole society around you
and you can only make out clues as to what is going on, because no one is
including you. And if you are not specifically thought of and spoken directly
to, then events and motivations and intents are mysterious, until they are done
and you had no idea what was happening. Even then, you might wonder, "why are
they doing this" and only have clues as to the answer.
The deaf person's most common question to a hearing person
is, "What did they say?", which is the very question the hearing
person asks again and again in this movie, but knowing that they aren't going to
get an answer, they just remain silent, mystified, and mostly bored until
something exciting, which one could never anticipate, happened. It is a full
turning of the tables.
But most hearing people wouldn't understand. They would just
say, "That film was just annoying." Right on. You got it.
Still, it is a slow gangster flick. I agree with the point,
and I get it. That doesn't mean I was entertained as much as I was enlightened.
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