The Tribe (2014) Online

At the time of writing (October 2014) this is on release in France but not the UK or the US so I'll write this for the benefit of audiences elsewhere in the world who might be wondering whether to go and see it or not. When not extorting money from other students at a boarding school for the deaf in the Ukraine, the 'tribe' of thugs in the title spend their time robbing train passengers, people in the street or, with the help of their teachers, pimp each other at a truck stop. New kid Sergey arrives and falls for one of the young hookers...which is about all the synopsis you need. There's no dialogue, or subtitles, all the communication between the characters is through sign language. Along with a total absence of incidental music this has the paradoxical effect of heightening the sound...the sounds of footsteps, lorry engines revving for example becoming sinisterly effective. It's not difficult to follow the narrative at all, so don't be put off. The bleak surroundings of the institution combine with a dreary landscape of crumbling apartment blocks, supermarkets at night time in a bitter, dirty grey winter, to heighten the feeling of an amoral universe, a dog eat dog world where everyone is out only for themselves. There's no compassion, the one intimate relationship which develops seems to be motivated by lust, carnality and characterised by opportunism on either part. There doesn't appear to be any real tenderness there. Is the closed institution an allegory for the Ukraine, or human societies as a whole? The Tribe is a unique piece of cinema and inspired me to write, I've seen nothing in the last few years quite so extraordinary, but be warned it most definitely is not for the faint hearted. The violence is sickening, stomach churning, and made all the more shocking by the use of sound and absence of music since even if averting your gaze you remain all too aware of what's happening on screen, with no music to distance or make things ironic. The Tribe forces you to gaze, unblinking, into the abyss of total human depravity.

The Tribe is one of the most unsettling films of the year. It is set at a boarding school for the deaf in Kiev, where anarchy prevails. There are no words, subtitles, or even a score. The hearing viewer is left to interpret the violent chaos without auditory clues, presenting a unique challenge in understanding the narrative and the motivations of the characters. We are left to confusedly construe scenarios by their actions, and as such, are provided some insight into the helpless isolation of the deaf.

As a film, The Tribe may be interpreted in various ways: as a political allegory for the Ukraine, as a discourse on communication through violence, as an allegory to the impotence experienced by minority groups, or as an exploration of enactivism in film. Regardless, there are scenes that are shockingly disturbing, and the direction is unflinching. My only conclusion is that I'm sorry deaf people, but I don't trust you anymore.

Raw, brutal, without dialogue or sub-titles and a sensation at Cannes. Sergey is a newbie at a Ukrainian boarding school for the deaf and mute. Within hours of arriving at the school he is promptly and severely bullied by other students. He fights back and is rewarded by becoming part of the gang. He commits his fair share of robberies, pimping and vicious shake-downs without remorse or regret. This is until he becomes enamored with Anna, a fellow student by day and part of his pimping responsibilities at night. The substantial troubles and desperations of these young students is treated with shocking indifference, selfishness and disturbing disconnection by everyone involved. The lack of words puts the audience deeper into the emotions of the characters. The film adeptly and brilliantly provides the experience as if one is standing in their shoes. I fled with them in the night, wandered through abandoned carnival rides and truck stops with them, and felt their desperation and hunger to survive in the face of a society that abandons them. Slow moving yet with power and impact that is deeply felt. Seen at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

The Tribe is a remarkable movie set in a boarding school for deaf students, or more specifically its dark side. The world of bullying, violence, juvenile delinquency and prostitution. It is brutal, visceral and tragic. The dialogue is in Ukrainian sign language without any subtitles or spoken words. I expected watching such movie to be a torture. I was wrong. It is gripping, immersing, thought-provoking and quite watchable. But it does demand attentive, patient and interested viewer. When Norma Desmond, a character played by Gloria Swanson in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard said: "We didn't need any dialogue, we had faces", she was part right. We really do not need dialogue to grasp the story, but we don't need faces either. We never see any close ups in The Tribe. What we do see is a bigger picture. And that's what this movie is about.

I had read about this film and wanted to see it, so I was happy to find it streaming on Netflix. The story takes place at a Ukrainian school for the deaf, and what I didn't realize until watching was that aside from a few mumbles, gasps, and background chatter, the characters speak only in Ukrainian sign language, without the use of subtitles, translations, or narration. There's not even any music, for crying out loud (although we do hear all the other sounds of the world though, doors closing and footsteps and things, the absence of which I think would have felt pretty strange).

But honestly, none of that bothered me. Not having to read subtitles let me enjoy the film in a different way. Even if you understand sign language, I didn't feel like the filmmakers went out of their way to focus on the signing. Often it took place in the distance, or the character's back would be turned or at a funny angel. There are a few scenes where it's hard to tell what they're talking about, but overall I never felt like I was missing much. The relative silence added to the experience, and I even found myself at time subconsciously thinking that I was unable to hear, kinda like when I watched The Invention of Lying on an airplane and thought that I too, like the characters in that film, was unable to tell a lie. But that was the only good thing about that movie, if you can even call it a good thing.

So, back to The Tribe. Unless you understand Ukrainian sign language, the characters' exact word choice is anyone's best guess, but the story is simple enough and told in such a way that it's easy enough to follow based on context, body language, and the things we see happening. I think it is anyway, unless I got the story totally wrong! But hey, it made enough sense to me! I may have been confused at times, but always felt like I was meant to be, like that was part of the story and the filmmakers' intention.

But the acting didn't quite cut it. I don't think any of these were professional actors, since their main requirement would have been fluency in sign language, and it really showed, despite there being no spoken dialog. They walk strangely and unnaturally, as if uncomfortable on camera, and too often stare off awkwardly in order to avoid looking at the camera. In one scene, three of the main character push their way through a crowd, but the exrtas in the scene all but ignore the annoyance, staring awkwardly straight ahead or at the ground. And one fight scene toward the start of the film almost ruined it for me. It was too clearly choreographed and looked as though the characters were dancing. Fortunately, the best bit of acting comes from our lead character, who was well-cast with his perpetually blank expression.

There are a few pretty explicit sex scenes, which didn't bother me except for the fact that, in the filmmakers' attempt to show as much as possible, it becomes pretty obvious that the sex is simulated, and the scenes are unconvincing and ineffective.

I'm typically a fan of European film with long takes, such as the ones in this film, but too often here we see doors being left open for the cameraman to enter when they would normally be closed in real life. Sometimes it's excusable, but at one point a character who is being chased on foot stops to hold the door open for the cameraman behind him. Another time, an apartment door is left open to the world while illegal activity is conducted just inside, and multiple doors throughout the film are left open to the cold outside.

This movie wasn't terrible, but the flaws, which were sometimes laughable, were too numerous to ignore. But there were a few things I loved about this film. I very much enjoyed the camera-work in general: long takes following the characters through various environments, down hills and through trees, jumping between characters. One particular scene shows separate actions occurring simultaneously in two different rooms, both visible in the same shot from the outside through adjacent windows. It was well-done and clever, but never felt gimmicky. I love stuff like that.

And I'm glad that, despite the terrible fight scene I was forced to endure, I still gave this movie a chance and stuck around to the end, because the last scene is very very good. It's one of the best endings I can remember seeing in a while. It's very effective, well-acted, well-shot, and all around well done from a technical standpoint.

Overall, I didn't love The Tribe, but I recommend it for for the ending, if for no other reason.

The opening scene encapsulates the film. There is no music and we hear no language. The camera holds a stationary view across a city road on a bus stop. In front we see and hear a succession of cars, trucks and buses. This is the film's characteristic shot: we are remote, detached, coolly observant of whatever is going on beyond our hearing and understanding. In the distant right is the black ruin of an old car. It's a charred omen of the vehicles that pass, an augur of disaster.

A young man, who will turn out to be our "hero," suitcase in hand, asks a woman at the bus stop for direction. He produces a note to express himself. So he's mute; her gesticulations tell us he's deaf.

The lad is joining a boarding school for the deaf and dumb. That first scene is the last we will see him in that presents the normalcy of our everyday life. His criminal activities will take him to a truckers' stop and onto a train but those scenes show him working for the "tribe" he draws into at the school. Once he gets to the school he is in another world. As he is forced to immerse himself in it we're kept far out. Watching but outside.

The staff and students are very articulate with their gestures, panting and grunts. But we're outside that language. We're of another tribe so we don't understand them. But we can figure out what's going on. That's because we're of the same tribe after all. So we recognize rites of initiation, socialization, pecking orders, cruelty, exploitation and the corruption of our highest values.

The parable of the school, its teachers — some well-meaning, some compromised — and its clearly structured gang of rough boys and sexualized girls, opens into two themes.

The first grows out of all this prolonged, detached shots of cold observation. The tribe at this school is a microcosm of our social structure. The absence of words and music make the experience seem like a clinical study, society viewed as through a microscope. We're detached so we can analyze the group's dynamics — but not so detached that we don't see it is mirroring us.

Two scenes pack the most emotional wallop. In one our lad has sex with the blonde he has been pimping. What begins with awkwardness and fumbles ends in such a closeness she lets him kiss her. For him it's love; for her it may or may not be. Now he can't let himself pimp her anymore. They have another lyrical love scene, which turns ominous when he gives her a full wallet he stole on the train. At the end he bludgeons a teacher to steal money to buy her again. In that tribe he fears there is no "love" without payment.

The second powerful scene is related: the girl's grisly abortion. This too is shot in one continuous long-shot take, in painfully real time. For this she uses the first money he gave her. We don't know if he knows that or not. Their relationship ends in either case.

If the film dramatizes the essential ways of our society, if it shows one sub-culture as typifying all of ours, the climax gives us another resonance. Our lad, who was such a helpless victim when he arrived at he school, stumbling from one abuse to another, suffering the painful initiations, then doing the work assigned him, now rises up against his oppressors. First he assaults and robs the shop teacher who moonlights driving the girls for he pimps. Then he tries to keep his beloved whore from escaping to Italy — by eating her passport. Finally he kills the four boys who have most persecuted him. The appealing young lad turns robotic killer. We hear his continuing thumps right through the end credits — as if his march of revenge proceeds ad infinitum. Now the fable reads as the oppressed rising — finally, after so much abuse — rising up in violent revolution.

At the end we learn the film is from the Ukraine. As the news reminds us, they know about oppression, about tribal wars, about the loss of innocence and about the savagery that persists beneath our veneer of civilization, even — or especially — among those whose disadvantages might dictate they rather aim for civility and care.

The sign language is a gimmick and doesn't make up for the weak plot and (mostly) bad acting.

To begin with the school administrators and all but one teacher disappeared after the first 10 minutes never to be seen again. The kids seem to be running the school. The movie seems to be playing with the 'shocking' realization that the deaf can be as bad as anyone else. I'm not that shocked, being deaf doesn't decrease typical human behavior, except that the filmmaker piled on the bad behavior to a comical level. The only thing they missed was I.V. drug abuse although they seemed to be checking for needle tracks on the new kid just before they test him in a fight with the rest of the gang. Speaking of that, the fight scenes were very poorly choreographed, and the sex scenes were only slightly better though that may have been purposeful; young love and all that. I don't mind looking at good looking naked people but it seems somewhat desperate having the kids pull their clothes off quite so often.

The hand-held tracking shots were impressive at times, especially the one following the lead actor down a snowy and slippery appearing hillside, but there were so many of them (up and down endless hallways and stairs) they became distracting. They may have been used to try to build tension but it doesn't work if it's overused.

Back to the 'gimmick': I wonder if the reason no subtitles were included was that someone realized the dialog was as bad as the rest of the script.

I think anybody who appreciates cinema will be applauding the director of this movie for giving us something truly unique. For a two hour film to keep someone gripped, without any spoken dialogue or subtitles to guide us, shows the power of the good old fashioned visual storytelling. The movie tells the brutal story of a boy trying to fit in, in a boarding school for the deaf. Graphic sex scenes, brutal violence, and an overwhelming sense of dread, combine to make this a very uncomfortable viewing experience. Unfortunately i felt some scenes were dragged out unnecessarily, which prevented it from being the masterpiece thats said to be. I think cutting it shorter than 2 hours would have greatly benefited it, because there were a few occasions where the specific scene made its point, but hung around longer than its welcome. Not a masterpiece, but certainly an intriguing and unique look into the future of film making!

The synopsis is well described in other reviews- I will just add some observations.

It could have been a shorter film but the 2+ hours brilliantly reinforces the utterly bleak isolation and loneliness of institutionalization. There is an overwhelming sense of dehumanization in this film- you don't even know the character's names. There is only a flicker of warmth in the entire film and that is when a prostitute allows herself to be kissed (and even that is painfully awkward). This film is absolutely packed with metaphors. It is a clever film and the more you think about it the better it becomes.

Genius? not quite but it's worth watching if you like "proper" films.

A young man arrives at a new boarding school, but his attempts to fit in are thwarted by the criminal element ingrained in his classmates.

A brief initiation brawl leads to his inclusion into the family and soon he's stealing, scamming and mugging alongside his new friends. It's not long before he's promoted to the role of pimp and guardian to two female students who sell their bodies for cash at truck stops.

When he falls for one of the girls his job grows trickier, leading to an unavoidably violent conflict with his partners in crime........

What could have been nothing more than a gimmick to make a movie seem more prolific than it is, makes hearing impairment an almost real character in the film, as the makers show us it's advantages and disadvantages to the protagonists/antagonists.

And it's one of the most difficult films to watch that I've seen in a long time. Not because of the films violence, I've seen enough films containing graphic images that I've become slightly numb to on screen violence, it's because the content of the film is so dirty, so real, and the depiction of the Ukraine in this movie makes it seem to be one of the most I inviting places you'll never want to visit.

He film has tragedy written all over it from the moment the credits start, and I cannot understand sign language in the slightest, but I knew and understood everything in the narrative, because of body language, the films claustrophobic feel, and long lingering shots that flood the film on many occasion.

The camera never shy's away from anything that is happening on screen, it can't, because there is no soundtrack, no subtitles, no voice over. The only thing we hear are crunching of bones, the lighting of cigarettes, and the erratic breathing of the cast.

The final third of the film is almost unbearable to watch, as the narratives world comes crashing down around everyone, and the disadvantages of hearing impairment is used in an almost exploitative way to end the film.

It's a triumph though for the makers, and the cast, to make a film as gripping and as intense as this, and use only sign language is a work of genius.

But it's not a film that I will quickly go back to, as it's a very bleak view of peer pressure when having a disability.

Would make a really interesting double bill with Come and See......if you had the bottle to do so.

I certainly couldn't.

2014 was a year of impressive films that utilized supposed 'gimmicks.' Boyhood had its 12 years, Birdman has its single shot, The Grand Budapest Hotel played with ratios, and The Tribe, a film that played well at film festivals without breaking out anywhere, has unsubtitled Ukrainian sign language. It's bold, and tough to get used to, but you have to subdue yourself to the fact that you will never know the details. It's kind of a shame, the beauty of film is in the details, but The Tribe has enchanting visual poetry. A lot of the film is done in long takes, often following characters from behind with steadicam leading to a separate scenario, and it's immaculately choreographed. The extent of Miroslav Slaboshpitsky's ambition exhausts itself there however, although it does have inventive A Clockwork Orange-esque brutality. There's a cold intimacy between the characters, whether it be through punches or sex, but we're not with them. It's a film that deliberately pushes the audience away by being lost in translation. With characters acting solely as archetypal figures, it lacks anything to identify with. It's such a shame because it could have been more concisely powerful rather than a purely superficial and disconnected experience. No deaf person will sleep well afterwards though, even if they don't understand the sign language. It touches a nerve there at least.

7/10

I was so looking forward to this! The trailer looked amazing and the hype and general consensus was that The Tribe was incredible. My word. I was so bored! So many components were poorly executed. The acting in general is quite bad, with a few minor exceptions, but I really think the directing makes it seem even worse than it is. The fight scenes are done with, what seems like no effort at all. I couldn't figure out the first fight. Were they trying some moves out for a school play. Some choreography the kids came up with in between classes. That's how it came off to me. The punches certainly don't actually make any contact. The sex scenes are so unrealistic. I mean they're not even close to each other, unless he's very well endowed (which he's not). The plot seems to have many holes in it as well. Where did all the adults go? Are all the truck drivers deaf and mute as well? Too many to list here.

I understand it's quite an achievement to make a film with no dialogue whatsoever, and I think it had potential. The cinematography is pretty well done and the general overtone of the film has merit. The Tribe is a film I had high hopes for and was definitely looking forward to, but I just can't see what others are seeing. http://www.filmnotion.com/

Sergei arrives at an Ukrainian boarding school for the deaf. He's a shy new kid who gets picked on. He is recruited into the ruling gang. They pimp out two of the older girls. Sergei is tasked with being the suitcase pimp and falls for Anya. King rules the organization and decides to sell the girls. Sergei revolts causing chaos and bloodshed.

There is sound but rarely any dialog. The sign language does not get translated into subtitles. One must guess at the plot but it's not impossible. The challenge of interpreting the story has some appeal. The question becomes what this is trying to achieve and what it actually achieves. It doesn't really put the audience into the shoes of the deaf. They actually know what's being said in the movie although it could give a sense of the deaf trying to understand the hearing world. There are some brutal graphic scenes. This is a shocking movie but I must admit that I fastforwarded some of the movie. It's too hard to watch such a quiet movie. One can't compare this to silent movies since those always have music. This is an interesting original experimental movie but I'm not sure what it achieves.

Sent to a boarding school designed to cater for deaf mute students, a teenager has trouble fitting in with his new peers in this dark drama from Ukraine. The film is shot entirely in sign language without any subtitles or narration - a stylistic choice that sounds promising. Indeed, the first twenty to thirty minutes of 'The Tribe' feel fascinatingly different from most other movies as it is necessary to concentrate on the body language and facial expressions of the characters to work out what they are saying. Unfortunately, the film runs much longer than that, and while there are some highlights later on, two hours is incredibly long for a movie like this with the novelty value of no dialogue dissipating around halfway through. The film's other novelty aspect -- being shot in 34 very long single takes -- also becomes troublesome as the film progresses since the single take process leads to most shots being long distance ones in which it is hard to read body language and therefore difficult to decipher what is happening. The precious little that can be made out of 'The Tribe''s plot is admittedly fascinating though. There seems be some sort of sordid culture in the boarding school environment, which at least some of the teachers appear to encourage and foster. Echoes of films like 'Unman, Wittering & Zigo' and Sidney Lumet's 'Child's Play' are felt with the suggestion of something sinister in the air, but as mentioned, what exactly is hard to tell. The film certainly ends on a potent note at least with a reminder of how vulnerable we all are when we cannot hear.

This is one of those movies that artsy, intellectual people will claim is a masterpiece, when it's just a boring, senseless, silent film. The characters are speaking, just in sign language. But apparently the dialogue was so bad, they didn't bother to translate it. I guess if you're a struggling screen writer, you can write movies in sign language with no subtitles. Have you ever gone to a museum and seen a painting that is simply a white canvas? You walk on by and see a white canvas, while artsy, intellectuals grasp at some asinine interpretation to justify the genius of the artist and prove they're smarter than the rest of us. You know, the ones that claim, "it's pregnant with meaning", while it's a blank canvas that someone mistakenly hung on the wall. That is THIS movie. The great thing about his movie, there are no spoiler alerts, because nothing happens. I know you want to see what the hub-bub is about, so go online, download it, watch the first 6 minutes, and then save yourself 2 hours that you could otherwise, never get back.

A masterpiece speaking of deaf mute Young people, but that ordinary people like me can easily understand. Before the opening credits, it was told that there would not be any subtitles for non deaf mute audiences. I was scared to death, but I stayed and finally made it.

Yes, I warn you, it's a brutal, fierce, bloody film made about orphan teenagers, rebel youth from Ukrainia. Only those Eastern Europa film industries can give us such stories.

Not for the squeamish, I warn you again.

A brutal tale of destruction but beware, NOTHING is gratuitous here. The realism is put at the highest scale possible. And I insist, this is not a gory film either. Only the true life in an Ukrainan youngsters institution.

The Tribe is one of the films with an odd way of speaking. The film is entirely from the beginning to the end using sign language which also became one of the breakthroughs because films like this seemed rare or unacceptable to some people. Maybe, I don't know if out there other than this movie the rest using sign language without any conversation that using word-per-word though. But, imagine watching in the cinema could leave a dark impression but full of doubt when you see this movie. The premise was simple, an innocent young man who's trying to stay in his school where the school was full of robbery, prostitution, and other criminal things.

The first opening scene has clearly stated that this movie doesn't use subtitle, dialog, and voice-over. I've guessed that this is not a happy type of movie in it. It feeling of concern when enjoying this movie is whether to understand the story or dialogue which it uses a sign language that almost some people don't understand sign language. I think is not. Without further ado, Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi uses all the actor and actress whose deaf so as not to show too much gimmick or acting. It's a pure gesture and facial expressions from the actors who understand the role of each their characters. So, don't worry if you can't comprehend the plot in such a way because this also teaches how to interpret the story without any help of a word. Unless you don't understand sign language, you can easily understand the story and the message the director wants to bear.

The Tribe has an interesting element regardless of using sign language without any subtitle. One of them is the cinematography which is almost as a whole taken in one shot in a very long moment. The pictures through the camera always seem steady and always intercept or highlight the characters without any constraints frames or jump cut that seem questionable. The neatly visible movements make The Tribe seem more unique when talking about this aspect. Not too much to hear from the actors who use the sign language so it's not like I really care to them because it was notified early from the first though it also adds an important point because it doesn't use a fake gimmick.

The director always shows a cinematography which is so smooth as for the most part and also my favorite when the two main characters are discussing in a two different room. One supporting character is entering one room with another room but the camera never separated from the view of the two characters are in the two room. When the two characters finished consulting, the other two characters coming from the right direction in the outdoor made the camera focus on the two new characters into the on-screen wherein this point they are, again, would describing the plot. Some other examples like the use of the environment are also unique as Akira Kurosawa does, using lots of weather, the direction of the wind, and the environment to further establish the character.

The Tribe isn't a happy story. This is about one person who's in the wrong way makes him unable to fight in the place and must take all the situations which reside in his school. He surrendered himself to be able to adapt but that's what makes him a different person, especially on the ending that feels like a well-execution in a dark manner and creates a trace pattern. I think some flaws that make the cinematography so uncomfortable for some people are also a matter of getting viewers to leave a depressed impression such as one shot that's taking too long to cut, a silent scene with almost no sound at all like watching Martin Scorsese's Silence, and uncomfortable feelings about things like those. The Tribe also have many memorable scenes such as, of course, the dark ending scene, the abortion scene which also makes me the most creepy and cringe scene I've ever seen in this movie or any other movie, and the climax.

The Tribe must be one of those movies with a strange and different experience than watching any mainstream movies. The use of sign language is difficult to understand but shows a work of art not only through words but through with feelings and thoughts as well. The Tribe is not a film which is too heavy to understand the way it is delivered but it also introduces you to the culture and the foundations of the deaf people so there is no mutual distinction.

The Tribe hit my radar a while back when I heard about the novelty of a film being silent in the world of the hearing impaired in a foreign country w/no subtitles in existence. What is essentially a silent film made in the digital age, eschews themes we've seen in other cinematic rites of passage w/silent thieves on the make all the time going from one score to the next. One wonders if the bleakness depicted translates to other schools of impairment around the world where the easy way out of dealing w/adversity is to turn to a life of crime. The choice of an non-subtitled version really puts the onus on our viewing collective who don't have the patience for this interesting endeavor.

I don't know what the situation of deaf teenagers in Ukraine is, but 'The Tribe' won't do them any favours - they all appear to be prostitutes and gangsters-in-training who will mug you as soon as look at you!

A boy arrives at a boarding school for the deaf, where he quickly joins a gang of teen- and adult criminals who pimp a couple of willing female pupils and run some sort of scam which seems to revolve around woolly toys. But when he falls for one of the prostitutes, things get (even more) violent (do they ever - you'll want to make sure your bedside cabinet is nailed to the floor after watching this!)

With a running time of over two hours, the film is needlessly long - cutting down some of the scenes, such as that featuring a visa queue outside the Italian Embassy, would have been a good idea. But I did find it quite engrossing - if conditions at the school are an accurate representation, Ukrainian deaf people are plainly not treated well (and not just the Ukrainian ones - to the fury of British deaf people in its audience, the British Film Institute didn't think to supply a sign language interpreter when director Miroslav Slaboshpitsky introduced the film at the 2014 London Film Festival). And I defy anyone to view the abortion scene and not feel at least uncomfortable - even if the character who underwent it seemed to recover remarkably quickly.

'The Tribe' is made in Ukrainian sign language, with no sub-titles. It is a tribute to Slaboshpitsky and his young, deaf actors that they have still managed to produce a film that a hearing viewer can, for the most part, follow. But if it is ever released on DVD I hope sub-titles are included, as I can't help wondering what viewers who do not understand Ukrainian sign language are missing - perhaps an explanation for why everyone's after those woolly toys?

In one way Ukrainian 'Plemya' is very remarkable, if not unique.

Being located in an institute for young adult deaf + dumb people, the actors communicate by using hand-language. Director Slabosjpitski obviously decided to make his audience part of this process, and left any subtitles out.

So watching this film, you feel a little deaf + dumb yourself -- unless you speak both Ukrainian and hand-language. I never experienced this brilliant effect in any other film before.

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Apart from the above, 'Plemya' reminds me of Stanley Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange' from 1971. A criminal gang with a lot of violence, all registered very plainly & realistic. The more so while 'Plemya' has the characteristic slow pace of an East European movie, taking its time to involve you.

'Plemya' surely is a film that gets under your skin. Its mediocre shooting, the only minor feature, is more than compensated by its excellent acting.

Set in a Ukranian boarding school for the deaf, 'The Tribe' is acted entirely by deaf actors who communicate exclusively in sign language. Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy's debut film also has another surprise for you, there is no subtitles!

The teenager Sergey (Grigoriy Fesenko) is a new pupil, and quickly becomes involved with a brutal gang that dominates the school. As well as scamming and mugging, the gang even pimp two of the female students at various truckers stops. This is certainly not your average school. Sergey falls in love with one of the girls, Anna (Yana Novikova), and sets off a series of events that will change him and everyone around him.

'The Tribe' is certainly a very difficult watch, Slaboshpytskiy relies on visual storytelling, and you have a general idea of what is going on. For the majority who can't understand sign language, you'll be left wondering and frustrated about all the small details. I don't know if Slaboshpytskiy's motives have completely paid off, in the effort of putting a marginalised set of people on screen, he's limited our understanding of them. But his aim is to show the audience that this silence illustrates their alienation from us.

It's possible that their alienation has forced them to think of themselves and their surroundings differently, especially for some of them in the second half of the film which descends into increasingly distressing displays of violence. Its in these heated exchanges that you really understand how difficult it is for deaf people to communicate just with each other. To communicate so much with not a word spoken is an amazing feat from Slaboshpytskiy. And through this silence, 'The Tribe' has plenty to say.

At some point while watching The Tribe, I realised I was being asked to take a side. Is this a fantastically ambitious, technically precise, artful slice-of-life look at the brutality humanity is capable of? Or is it an exploitative, immature, cinephile indulgence that insults the deaf community with its condescension. The litmus test of a bad movie is when you start to admire the technique, because it means you are not caught up in the story. The Tribe, in fact, sets out to ensure you are not caught up in the story: one scene one take long shots that carry on interminably is a rigorous aesthetic that craves an art-house stamp of approval, but the audience is doubly distanced by the signing interactions. This does not give a universal humanity to the deaf, it simply denies them a voice. This happens quite literally - like the director, I work near a deaf school and share a commute with the pupils. They are loud as hell, like all energetic schoolkids are. I can't imagine deaf Ukranian schoolkids are any different. Much has been made of the precise staging and blocking. But while I could admire the precise timing in some of the mise-en-scene, there are also amateurish moments, such as the slapstick fighting that is supposed to be the protagonist's rite of passage into the gang. The second half of the film seems to give up on any semblance of reality in plotting completely. The protagonist is conveniently hanging about when his romance interest gets her new passport, and there is a conveniently filled sink of water waiting when the bad boys get hold of him. A teacher is assaulted, possibly murdered, with no apparent consequences. I can't tell if this is a comment on societal indifference to brutality, or lazy screen writing. The pleasure in viewing The Tribe emerges from the mechanics of filmmaking, asking "How did they do that?": the violence, the sex scenes, the abortion sequence. As narrative, as catharsis, the film never engages and its gimmicks become weary. A clever film in many ways, perhaps a cynical one, and nowhere near as good as it thinks it is.

'Plemya/The Tribe' conveys with raw brutality the silent world of the deaf and dumb, as when the older pimp is crushed to death by a reversing lorry, on one of the many nights when two girls from 'the tribe' solicit prostitution from truck drivers. Inspiring and sad by turns, the attitude of the characters in the movie, with the exception of the Down's syndrome boy, is beyond disability. They have worked through their impediments and learned to interact with the world inside and outside their institution, to achieve their intentions, whether good or bad, despite their physical limitations, even oblivious to them. Life inside the institution is bleak, with the only avenue for education and self-improvement being a carpentry class run by the institution's bus-driver. The perfect wooden hammer shaped by the model student, the misfit boy, eventually delivers the fatal blow to the teacher-carpenter, involved in a scam to send the blonde prostitute on a tourist visa to Italy. The movie illustrates how gang loyalties compensate for the lack of guidance in a young person's life. Being free from the shackles of accountability is a primary instigator for criminal activities, for monetary and in-kind rewards but also an antidote for boredom, frustration and idleness. At the end of this stunning movie, sadness is compounded by the realization that we do not have a single name to cross-check against the actors' names on the credit list. Is this a celebration of triumph over adversity? Hardly, but a compelling movie, nevertheless, on a taboo topic. cine girl

Let's start with the long takes. Just wow. So long and probably difficult to execute. No take is even under a minute and a half, I bet. Any film with long takes would suggest that there is a master filmmaker working behind the curtain. Watching characters walk up and down four flights of stairs becomes a simultaneously thrilling and beautiful experience.

The film is entirely in sign language, which by default makes it stunningly singular. It is without a doubt a well executed experiment, and that alone makes it one of the year's finest works of art. The Tribe might not have words, but it speaks volumes for people walking down entire hallways and people hitting people on the head with blunt objects. Even though there's no dialogue, Slaboshpitsky crafts such multi-dimensional characters that you may not even be able to tell some apart. The film's central theme about people who live in a community that is bad resonated deeply with me.

The film features some stunning images of sex and violence, which are all that I remember from the movie. The buildup to these scenes is slow (albeit full of tension), but once we get that delicious violence shot with an unflinching camera, or those realistic sex scenes, it's all worth it. It's a shocking, haunting, and bleak film, but I can handle it. Simply harrowing. Brutal, some might say. I'm running out of adjectives to describe my stunning experience, but you get the point.

The more I think about the film, the more I realize how little lays under the surface, but that's precisely the point. This is an experience of long periods of waste, stunning violence, and artsy sex, but it is shot with such elegance that it cannot be mistaken for anything but high art. This is a sumptuous feast for serious audiences such as myself, and I recommend it to all audiences who like long takes and well crafted craft.

As a credit to the film-makers the opening screen advises viewers that there is no dialog or sub-titles, the film is completely in sign language. Can you follow the film without knowing sign language? Absolutely, you will miss some of what they are trying to convey but other parts are perfectly clear, in some scenes there is absolutely no mistaking what the characters are talking about. The film starts off with a boy showing up at a rundown boarding schools for the deaf, the school seems to have a large population of students however the film focus on a small core group of 2 girls and 4 boys; following these students as they build their criminal empire with the help of their wood shop teacher they graduate from extorting money from other students, to theft, robbery, prostitution and murder. The new kid is jumped into "The Tribe" and works his way up the ladder and back down again, at first administering a few kicks to a shopper they rob and beat for some beer and wine, then moving along to become the pimp for the two prostitute classmates. Falling in love with one of the girls begins the downward spiral and exile from "The Tribe" out on his own to make money and survive he resorts to robbery and murder. The film takes place in the Ukraine but it could be anywhere, there is a total lack of supervision for the kids at the boarding school and they seem to have quite a bit of free time to spend on their criminal activities, our core group of students have keys to the school and come and go as they please, in the end the film is about a group of kids doing what they need to do to survive and their eventual failure.