Review of The Tribe (2014) by Grant S — 26 Oct 2018

Novel and interesting but lacks engagement.

Sergey, a deaf teenager, is starting his first day at a special school for the deaf. He soon discovers that most things at the school are run by The Tribe, an anarchic, criminal gang of students. He falls foul of The Tribe and is bullied and attacked by them. However, over time he joins them and works his way up their ranks.

A very original movie: no audible spoken words at all, hardly any sound at all, in fact. The idea being that you need to experience the world of a deaf person. All communication between the characters is done by sign language, and there's no sub-titles. Even if you understand sign language (and, unfortunately, I don't) you probably wouldn't be able to make out what they're saying - the signing isn't directed at the camera.

So you have to watch this essentially as a silent movie, using actions and body language to figure out what is going on. This, and the intriguing plot (initially) make this quite interesting.

However, it lacks engagement. The main character isn't particularly interesting or likeable, and the more you get into the movie, the less you like him.

Plus, the plot can seem quite random at times. Having to use sight cues to determine the narrative does have its drawbacks...

Overall, okay, but could have been better.