UKRAINE
2014 / WORLD PREMIERE
2H10 IN SIGN LANGUAGE
Synopsis
Deaf mute Sergey enters a specialized boarding school for deaf-and-dumb. In this new place, he needs to find his way through the hierarchy of the school's network dealing with crime and prostitution, The Tribe. By taking part of several robberies, he gets propelled higher into the organization. Then he meets one of the Chief's concubines Anna, and unwillingly breaks all the unwritten rules of the tribe.
DIRECTOR: Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy
SCREENPLAY: Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Valentyn Vasyanovych
EDITING: Valentyn Vasyanovych
SOUND: Sergiy Stepanskiy
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Vlad Odudenko
CAST:
Grigoriy Fesenko
Yana Novikova
Rosa Babiy
Alexander Dsiadevich
Yaroslav Biletskiy
Ivan Tishko
Alexander Osadchiy
Alexander Sidelnikov
Alexander Panivan
PRODUCTION
GARMATA FILM PRODUCTION
Valentyn Vasyanovych
Tel. +380 9 7222 3710
vasyanovych@ukr.net
DISTRIBUTION
UFO DISTRIBUTION
Stéphane Auclaire
Tel. + 33 (0)1 55 28 88 93
William Jehannin
Mob. +33 (0)6 64 22 79 40
william@ufo-distribution.com
SALES
ALPHA VIOLET
Virginie Devesa
Mob. + 33 (0)6 20 41 11 37
Keiko Funato
Mob. + 33 (0)6 2983 5108
info@alphaviolet.com
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
MAKNA PRESSE
Chloé Lorenzi
Tel. +33 (0)6 08 16 60 26
Giulia Fazioli
Tel. +41 796 170 031
Audrey Grimaud
Tel. +33 (0)6 71 74 98 30
festival@makna-presse.com
CONTACT CANNES
ALPHA VIOLET
Virginie Devesa
Mob. + 33 (0)6 20 41 11 37
Keiko Funato
Mob. + 33 (0)6 2983 5108
info@alphaviolet.com
Rough, disturbing and totally captivating, The Tribe might leave you… speechless.
Your whole film is in sign language, without any voice over, nor subtitles. Why did you choose to plunge the audience into that body language?
This is an homage to silent film, where actors were communicating through pantomime. Such movies are produced almost every year from now on but all works I've seen are following the silent movie stylisation. For me, the main goal was to make more realistic, natural silent film, which would be easily understood without words. Nowadays there are a lot of films, which you can just listen. On the other hand, there are films where all actors stay silent all the time. But now, with The Tribe, I've found another path. Sign language is like a dance, ballet or kabuki theatre, but there's no grotesque because people are communicating that way for real.
Indeed, your young actors are deaf-mute actors. Anyway, would your film have been conceivable with hearing actors?
I have never considered the idea of making this film with hearing actors. Body language is natural and very individual for deaf people. Because people who speak use only facial muscles to make pronunciation, while deaf people use the whole body to communicate.
The casting of my movie lasted about a year, mainly through social networks. We have looked about 300 applicants for the leads. But we did not shoot a single professional. All of our artists are children from the streets. I think they gained some unique experience for a lifetime. I certainly did.
Interview by Ariane Allard
