Review: BEYOND SILENCE
Starring: Sophie Testul
Review by: Joy Wyse
There is much said today about dysfunctional families. BEYOND SILENCE shows us a family that truly has that distinction. The story centers on the life of a young girl named Lara who is born to deaf parents, Martin and Kai. Lara becomes their link to the hearing world, making telephone calls, and interpreting for them, including the dialogue of romantic movies for her mother.
But the story is much deeper than that. Martin has a sister, Clarissa, who has another set of problems. Not only can Clarissa hear, but she is an accomplished clarinetist. Her life has been affected by Martin's deafness, so when she introduces Lara to the clarinet, and music, her motivation is questioned.
Martin and Kai have another daughter, eight or ten years younger than Lara, who isn't too interested in becoming another translator, although she "speaks" the language.
When Lara becomes eighteen, she is torn by the choices that she could or should make about her life. Can she pursue her music? Must she remain as her parents' bridge to the outside world? Will she have a life of her own?
This movie is so very tastefully done. It is in German, with subtitles It is strange in one scene, where a music professor speaks English and the subtitles are in English as well. Because the Main language of the film is often sign language, it crosses the language barriers very well. although you can get confused at times as to whether the subtitles are translating the spoken or the signed words.
There is nudity and sensuality, but it is in no way offensive. There is only one word that is even slightly questionable, in German or in English.
Not only is the acting superb, the lead actors seem to be fluent in sign language as well. They are very believable, including the actress who plays the young Lara. I kept thinking to myself that this is a movie that I hope is nominated for best foreign language film, for both "foreign" languages.
I do want to see this again, especially with my grandson who attends a school that teaches sign language to hearing children. I might even buy this if it comes out on video. I have to give it an A-.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews