The Tribe (2014)
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The Tribe Movie Review
The Tribe is a 2014 Ukrainian crime drama film directed by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy. It’s such a disappointing film.
It is set in a boarding school for deaf teenage students where a novice scholar is drawn into an institutional system of organized crime, involving robbery and prostitution. This was an unprecedented technical achievement back when it was released and it got so much praise rightly so for its silent film approach.
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The movie is entirely told in the sign language, and they chose not to give us subtitles. The end result is a brave, admirable achievement where you have to follow it closely in order to understand it, and most of it is easily understood, or enough understood to follow this particularly slim story.
So yes, I really disliked the storyline, and here’s why. I personally have never been a fan of crime films, and simply stories about bullying, prostitution and drugs do not suit my tastes. But that is not the problem with this film. The issue I’ve had with it is that this story was a terrible choice for this particular movie.
They employed all of these real deaf actors and they included sign language in its entirety only to throw them all into a crime story just like any other. That is why the film ultimately felt like a true, shameless gimmick that works technically speaking, but at the end of the day it’s pointless as it doesn’t concern deaf people or the issues they face in society in the slightest. And simply this story was misery porn that had no subtlety to it whatsoever as we went from one horrible uncomfortable situation to another throughout its long runtime.
The Tribe is very well acted by its talented cast, and all are very well chosen for their roles. I did like the character Sergey and his journey to the dark side, but Anya is even better and more tragic of a figure, though that abortion scene was truly horrible and unnecessary. The film is very well edited, stupendously shot by a steady cam and its production design is quite memorable. I just wish it wasn’t all wasted on such a poor story.
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There is no denying the technical brilliance of The Tribe. It is an unprecedented achievement in its use of sign language, silent film approach, excellent cinematography and terrific production design. However, this was all unfortunately wasted on such a disappointing, poor story that not only represents the case of unpleasant misery porn, but it also betrays its deaf characters by giving them such a regular storyline like any other crime film out there. It’s a very disappointing gimmick of a film.
