The Tribe

Director: Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 1.0

A deaf-mute teenager enrolls in a boarding school for other students with the same handicap, but soon finds out the kids regularly pimp out a few of the girls to truck drivers, rob and beat people, drink excessively and steal (the teen eventually impregnates one of the 'prostitutes' who then has to get a makeshift abortion). The entire movie is in sign language, which makes this quite unique, but it's also without subtitles, meaning one has to try to surmise what's being 'communicated' by the non-verbal cast - coupled with the master shots, it creates a great deal of distance between the audience and the subjects ... and it also fails to address common sense questions (where is the adult supervision? how come the police are nowhere to be found? do they actually do their homework or learn anything? is every single person in the community a deaf-mute?), focusing instead on the transgressions. As much as I hate to use to word 'problematic,' equating individuals with disabilities and degeneracy is not the wisest move.