The Tribe

Miroslav Slaboshpitsky's The Tribe, about a young man at a boarding school for the deaf who becomes involved in a clandestine crime ring, has been going around the festival circuit for a while, and is coming out in limited release on Wednesday, the 17th. It's gotten a lot of buzz since its premiere at Cannes last year, and I had the chance to see it back in March at the New Directors/New Films.

The premise alone deserves praise; while it has a simple 'climbing the ranks of a criminal organization' story, all the characters speak exculsively in Ukranian sign language, which is left unsubtitled. That combined with the long, often static takes gives it the feel of a modern silent film. Unfortunately, it turns out that wasn't enough to engross me, and it's taken me a while to figure out why. At first I thought it was the lack of information that led my mind to wander; how could I get attached to a character in such a simple and well worn story when I didn't even know his name and he looked like 90% of the other students/gang members? But the real problem is in Slaboshpitsky's formal choices, which end up undermining the attempt to evoke silent film.

All of the cast are non-actors, and it does show; the attempt at naturalism just ends up being unremarkable, which was what made it hard for me to differentiate most of the characters. Without dialogue, or even a confirmed name for out main character (the credits reveal his name is Sergey, but there's no way to know that from the film alone), the actor has to make non-verbal choices that give the character life onscreen. Silent film acting focuses on a different set of skills since the audience can't hear (or in this case, understand) not just what the character says, but how he says it, and these non-actors aren't trained for that. The choice to shoot entirely in wide shots makes this worse; the close up provides the most powerful emotional connection between the actor and the audience, and The Tribe is determined to leave us detached from its characters. So without dialogue, compelling performances, or closeups, most of the film falls flat.

I also feel I should mention that The Tribe occasionally throws in a shocking scene seemingly just for the visceral reaction; there's a gruesome accidental death whose only impact is to put Sergey in a new position that will move the plot forward and a medical procudure one step above back-alley that lingers for way too long. The actual violence is brutal but not gratitious (with the exception of one late scene), and actually fits the feel of the film without forcing a reaction from the viewer, so it's frustrating to have to sit through some scene made specifically to make you uncomfortable.

In short, The Tribe's form ends up more interesting than its content, and that form actually ends up hindering the film as a whole.

[If you want to read my first reaction when I saw it back in March, which was shorter, blunter, and has some very mild spoilers, you can read my letterboxd review here.]

Film Festivals - what you might see soon

It's June! And apparently that means a whole bunch of film festivals, so here's a overview of what's going on and what I might write about in the next few weeks.

I'm developing an extensive collection of festival badges and passes.

Right now: Brooklyn Film Festival (May 29th - June 7th)

I'm still deciding whether to write an overall post or talk about the films individually; I've got a 4 film pass and have already seen one film, a documentary called Placebo about life at the hardest med school to get into in the world (which I recommend, but warn that the narrative structure makes it somewhat uneven). I've already posted a review on Letterboxd, which will probably show up here in some form at some point. The other three films I plan to see are still up in the air, though Placebo is probably the only documentary I'll see there.

Soon: Lower East Side Film Festival (June 11th - 21st)

Right on the heels of BFF is the Lower East Side Film Festival, which I have even less of a plan for since I'm going to be volunteering there. I'm most interested in Jane Wants a Boyfriend, Party Time Party Time, and Pop Meets the Void, so there's a good chance I'll end up writing about some of those.

Later: BAM Cinemafest (June 17th - 25th)

Cinemafest has got a real interesting selection; the sci-fi film Advantageous is a must see for me, but I probably won't be able to see more than that; my theater staff perks don't include the festival, and summer's not a particularly lucrative time for me. There's a chance I may get to see The End of the Tour since it's showing in the Opera House instead of the movie theater, but I'm not getting my hopes up.


Ones I'll be missing out on: Northside Festival (June 8th - 10th), American Black Film Festival (June 11th - 14th)

There's obviously only so much I can do, but I'm still sad I'll be missing these two. Northside is a week long festival encompassing film, music, and technology events, taking place around north Brooklyn. The film part runs the first three days, but between limited funds and the venues being a bit difficult to get to (you'd think getting from southern Brooklyn to northern Brooklyn would be simple...but it's not), it's not something I can do this year. I'm even more disappointed to be missing the American Black Film Festival; I can't deny that my film choices overall are overwhelmingly white and that needs to change. But once again, money, and time, and the fact that their volunteer application period ends at the beginning of March, and I didn't even check until after Tribeca.