There is one thing clear about “The Tribe,” a new movie by Myroslav Slaboshpytsky, which opened in theaters all over Ukraine on Sept. 11: it’s not for the fainthearted. The director, with his first full-length feature, has managed to demolish all the cliches of the Ukrainian cinema.
“The Tribe” is not based on historical events of the Cossack Era. There are no fancy shots of landscapes and dreamy action, and the cast does not consist of Russian stars acting as if being in a Ukrainian film is below them, coupled with a bunch of local movie stars with inflated egos.
The new movie by Slaboshpytsky, in turn, is all about realism Its cast is comprised solely of deaf non-professionals, and it has no music, dialogue, or subtitles, as it’s filmed entirely in the language of gestures.
Often, it’s so brutal and straightforward that it’s difficult to watch. To say that the minimalistic style of “The Tribe” reminds of watching a documentary would be an understatement. The nearest analogy is amateur videos of teenagers beating, humiliating, or simply making fun of each other and then uploading it to a social network. This is the degree of immersion into the life of its characters that only a remarkable work of art can achieve. “The Tribe” is the gutsiest Ukrainian film made after independence and might very well be the best.
The movie takes the viewers on an uneasy journey into the world of boarding school for the deaf. In the opening shot we see a deaf kid, trying to find out directions of how to get there. For the rest of the film, we are watching him first being a victim to beatings, extortion and humiliation by his peers, then learning to play by their rules and getting involved into criminal activities involving pimping his classmate girls and then rebelling the system. This would result in a shocking final scene that is bound to leave viewers speechless long after the movie ends. In-between there’s an awkward love story between the protagonist and one of the girls he pimped and some of the most graphic sex scenes Ukrainian cinema has ever produced.
One of the most amazing things about the Tribe is how soon after the movie begins you stop paying attention to the fact that it’s filmed without any dialogue. The credit for this goes to Slaposhpytsky, who choreographed the shots with great skill, never using the close-ups and exaggerated mimics of silent cinema, which would turn the movie into a joke.
The cast, especially the main characters, played by Hryhoriy Fesenko and Yana Novikova, deserve a special praise. What they have managed to accomplish in “The Tribe” is not even about great acting. The film’s young leads have managed to show the viewers the world of the deaf, often being so blatantly honest about it, as if this is their only chance in life to do so. It probably is.
Recently, a lot has been said about the controversial decision by Ukraine’s film industry officials not to select “The Tribe” to take part in the Academy Awards competition for the Best Foreign Language Film. Instead, the more mainstream flick “The Guide” was chosen.
This happened even though “The Tribe” has already been a favorite at major international film festival, including the Cannes Film Festival, where it won three important awards, including the Critics Week Grand Prix.
In my view, discussing the rights and wrongs of the above would be doing Slaboshpytsky’s film a disservice. With limited resources, he managed to turn the idea so risky and unorthodox that most filmmakers would stay away from, into an excellent film that’s likely to inspire many more filmmakers to think outside the box. And no powerbrokers’ decision can take this away.
Kyiv Post staff writer Vlad Lavrov can be reached at [email protected].
