magnuslhad At some point while watching The Tribe, I realised I was being asked to take a side. Is this a fantastically ambitious, technically precise, artful slice-of-life look at the brutality humanity is capable of? Or is it an exploitative, immature, cinephile indulgence that insults the deaf community with its condescension. The litmus test of a bad movie is when you start to admire the technique, because it means you are not caught up in the story. The Tribe, in fact, sets out to ensure you are not caught up in the story: one scene one take long shots that carry on interminably is a rigorous aesthetic that craves an art-house stamp of approval, but the audience is doubly distanced by the signing interactions. This does not give a universal humanity to the deaf, it simply denies them a voice. This happens quite literally - like the director, I work near a deaf school and share a commute with the pupils. They are loud as hell, like all energetic schoolkids are. I can't imagine deaf Ukranian schoolkids are any different. Much has been made of the precise staging and blocking. But while I could admire the precise timing in some of the mise-en-scene, there are also amateurish moments, such as the slapstick fighting that is supposed to be the protagonist's rite of passage into the gang. The second half of the film seems to give up on any semblance of reality in plotting completely. The protagonist is conveniently hanging about when his romance interest gets her new passport, and there is a conveniently filled sink of water waiting when the bad boys get hold of him. A teacher is assaulted, possibly murdered, with no apparent consequences. I can't tell if this is a comment on societal indifference to brutality, or lazy screen writing. The pleasure in viewing The Tribe emerges from the mechanics of filmmaking, asking "How did they do that?": the violence, the sex scenes, the abortion sequence. As narrative, as catharsis, the film never engages and its gimmicks become weary. A clever film in many ways, perhaps a cynical one, and nowhere near as good as it thinks it is.

djo_34 This is one of those movies that artsy, intellectual people will claim is a masterpiece, when it's just a boring, senseless, silent film. The characters are speaking, just in sign language. But apparently the dialogue was so bad, they didn't bother to translate it. I guess if you're a struggling screen writer, you can write movies in sign language with no subtitles. Have you ever gone to a museum and seen a painting that is simply a white canvas? You walk on by and see a white canvas, while artsy, intellectuals grasp at some asinine interpretation to justify the genius of the artist and prove they're smarter than the rest of us. You know, the ones that claim, "it's pregnant with meaning", while it's a blank canvas that someone mistakenly hung on the wall. That is THIS movie. The great thing about his movie, there are no spoiler alerts, because nothing happens. I know you want to see what the hub-bub is about, so go online, download it, watch the first 6 minutes, and then save yourself 2 hours that you could otherwise, never get back.

Joshua_Barry I was so looking forward to this! The trailer looked amazing and the hype and general consensus was that The Tribe was incredible. My word. I was so bored! So many components were poorly executed. The acting in general is quite bad, with a few minor exceptions, but I really think the directing makes it seem even worse than it is. The fight scenes are done with, what seems like no effort at all. I couldn't figure out the first fight. Were they trying some moves out for a school play. Some choreography the kids came up with in between classes. That's how it came off to me. The punches certainly don't actually make any contact. The sex scenes are so unrealistic. I mean they're not even close to each other, unless he's very well endowed (which he's not). The plot seems to have many holes in it as well. Where did all the adults go? Are all the truck drivers deaf and mute as well? Too many to list here. I understand it's quite an achievement to make a film with no dialogue whatsoever, and I think it had potential. The cinematography is pretty well done and the general overtone of the film has merit. The Tribe is a film I had high hopes for and was definitely looking forward to, but I just can't see what others are seeing. http://www.filmnotion.com/

Sergeant_Tibbs 2014 was a year of impressive films that utilized supposed 'gimmicks.' Boyhood had its 12 years, Birdman has its single shot, The Grand Budapest Hotel played with ratios, and The Tribe, a film that played well at film festivals without breaking out anywhere, has unsubtitled Ukrainian sign language. It's bold, and tough to get used to, but you have to subdue yourself to the fact that you will never know the details. It's kind of a shame, the beauty of film is in the details, but The Tribe has enchanting visual poetry. A lot of the film is done in long takes, often following characters from behind with steadicam leading to a separate scenario, and it's immaculately choreographed. The extent of Miroslav Slaboshpitsky's ambition exhausts itself there however, although it does have inventive A Clockwork Orange-esque brutality. There's a cold intimacy between the characters, whether it be through punches or sex, but we're not with them. It's a film that deliberately pushes the audience away by being lost in translation. With characters acting solely as archetypal figures, it lacks anything to identify with. It's such a shame because it could have been more concisely powerful rather than a purely superficial and disconnected experience. No deaf person will sleep well afterwards though, even if they don't understand the sign language. It touches a nerve there at least.7/10