THE TRIBE

Sergei (Grigori Fesenko) is new at a boarding school for deaf teenagers somewhere in Ukraine. He quickly grasps that the school runs by its own rules: a gang of older pupils organises assaults, thefts and the prostitution of two female pupils to lorry drivers, with a teacher protecting the operation. Sergei joins in, rises through the hierarchy and is appointed the girls’ minder. When he falls in love with Anna, one of the two, he breaks the tribe’s most important unwritten law. Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy tells “The Tribe” (Ukraine, 2014) entirely in Ukrainian sign language, without subtitles, without narration, without music.

Anyone who does not understand the signing has to rely on bodies, gestures and spaces, and this is exactly what the film builds on: long sequence shots in which the camera follows the characters through corridors, dormitories and across car parks. The violence is not explained, it is shown. At its premiere in the Semaine de la Critique in Cannes in 2014, “The Tribe” won the section’s Grand Prize and two further awards. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2014.

Shown at the 2014 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2014 · Film Archive