The Tribe

Cinema is a predominantly visual medium, yet Miroslav Slaboshpitsky’s The Tribe takes this a step further in an audacious removal of all language apart from the visual, in this wordless, subtitle-less drama. Told entirely in Ukrainian sign language, the film’s narrative about an underground crime ring in a deaf-mute boarding school may struggle to match the film’s bold and innovative form, yet this remains a truly singular experience. Violent, uninhibited and at times incredibly uncomfortable to watch, Slaboshpitsky’s fiercely unorthodox 2014 debut has been decried by some critics as a one-trick-pony, but when that trick is executed with such formal rigor and finesse it’s hard not to be left speechless.