Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

The Tribe Blu-ray Movie Review

Silence Isn't Golden

Reviewed by Michael Reuben March 22, 2016

The Tribe is a Ukrainian film, but you won't have to read a single subtitle, because the film has no spoken dialogue. The characters are all hearing- and speech-impaired individuals who communicate in sign language, which is not translated. Writer/director Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy has said that he wanted to make a modern-day silent movie, and his debut feature takes the silent aesthetic to an extreme that exceeds anything from Hollywood's classical era (or even a retro creation like The Artist). The Tribe deprives the viewer of any narrative scaffolding to tell you who's who, where they are or what they are doing. You have to deduce what is transpiring on screen from visual clues and specific actions. You have to pay attention.

The Tribe debuted at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, where it won multiple awards and critical acclaim. It was widely expected to be the Ukraine's submission for that year's Oscars but was supplanted by Oles Sanin's The Guide, in a decision so controversial that it led to reforms in the country's selection procedure. According to the director's commentary on the new Blu-ray from Drafthouse Films, the decision was the product of bribery. If that's true, it's an appropriate coda to The Tribe's brutally frank depiction of an outlaw society.

To discuss The Tribe even in summary requires providing more information than the viewer receives at the outset. Readers who want to experience the film "cold" should skip this section.

Not until the credits do we learn the name of the film's protagonist, Sergey (Grigoriy Fesenko), who is first seen from a distance asking directions at a bus stop in an unidentified city. We never learn anything about his past or background but simply follow as he arrives at a new school entirely populated and staffed by other hearing-impaired people. Classes are taught, but The Tribe's main focus is on the extracurricular activities of a select group of students, who recruit Sergey almost immediately. The group's money-making pursuits include the relatively harmless sale of trinkets on trains (harmless unless you happen to leave your valuables unattended), extortion from younger students and random mugging, but their principal business, and the one to which The Tribe devotes most of its attention, is prostitution. The customers are long-distance truck drivers sleeping in their cabs at a local depot, and the hookers are two female students, a blonde and a brunette, who are identified in the credits as Anya (Yana Novikova) and Svetka (Rosa Babiy). Several teachers are involved, and a pecking order exists for the distribution of profits. The credits identify the top student only as "King" (Alexander Osadchiy).

At the heart of The Tribe is a story of impossible love, as Sergey develops feelings for Anya—and possibly she for him, although she has no intention of abandoning her job. Sergey's attempt to pursue a relationship upsets the operational hierarchy and leads to his demotion. Events escalate when he learns that Anya plans to leave the school for what she believes will be greener pastures in the sex trade.

The Tribe contains powerful performances, almost entirely by newcomers without prior acting experience, and the camera's unsparing gaze captures several intense scenes that leave a lasting impression. But I cannot help wondering whether the purity of Slaboshpytskiy's formalism is an unalloyed benefit. Films choose their audience, and The Tribe requires a level of active commitment from its viewers that some may find too frustrating (or exhausting). Without at least some exposition to lure and guide an audience into the story, The Tribe presents formidable barriers to entry. The lengthy running time of 132 minutes derives from the same insistence on expressing everything visually, without so much as an intertitle, but there is clearly more being said between the characters than one can possibly derive from the film. Indeed, a reading of the script confirms that Slaboshpytskiy wrote specific dialogue for his cast to express in sign language (which the director himself does not know). The script excerpt that Drafthouse has included, which is taken from Sergey's "initiation" into the criminal gang, contains information and nuance that one could not possibly glean even from repeated viewings.

The Tribe's most effective sequences are those where words are irrelevant in any form. In the sexual encounters between Sergey and Anya, for example, the entire arc of a relationship is traced through gestures, attitudes and reactions. (Watching these scenes, one is not surprised to learn, as the director reveals in his commentary, that the actress' boyfriend objected to her taking the part and ended the relationship when she did.) At the opposite end of the spectrum are the occasional scenes in class, where a teacher is obviously conveying a lesson through signing, but very little can be inferred from the context (in part because the teachers address groups rather than interacting with individuals).

Despite these reservations, The Tribe is a remarkable cinematic experience unlike anything else. Slaboshpytskiy has compared the story to that of a classic Western, where a loner rides into a troubled town, has his emotions unexpectedly stirred by someone he meets there, and ends up making a stand against the corrupt status quo. The critical difference is that a Western hero usually rides off into the sunset (or the great beyond, as the case may be). Sergey's situation at the end of The Tribe is less noble—and far more disturbing.

The Tribe Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Tribe was shot primarily on Alexa, with an occasional scene captured on the Red Epic, which is more portable. The credited cinematographer is Valentyn Vasyanovych, who also edited and produced. Director Slaboshpytskiy says in his commentary that he would have preferred to shoot on 35mm film, but The Tribe's many long, unbroken shots required digital capture. (I didn't count, but IMDb states that the film contains just 34 shots, which sounds about right.)

Drafthouse's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray provides a sharply defined and detailed image that allows the viewer to study both the people and their surroundings, which is essential given the director's preference for static panoramic shots in which multiple actions play out across the frame. Contrast and black levels are very good, which is important for the many night sequences. The film's palette appears to be naturalistic, with a gamut of hues running from faded to richly dark; The Tribe's entire spectrum can be seen in the copious graffiti appearing everywhere on the crumbling buildings, providing a kind of indirect commentary on the action. The image is so good that you can even make out the patterns of the parquet wooden floors in the school corridors.

Drafthouse has mastered The Tribe with an average bitrate of 29.98 Mbps, and there were no compression or other artifacts.

The Tribe Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Tribe's 5.1 soundtrack has obviously been mixed with care, and the Blu-ray's lossless DTS-HD MA encoding does it justice, but the mix gives new meaning to the term "minimalist". In addition to having no dialogue, the film has no score (and no source music either). All we hear are the sounds of events onscreen—jackets being zipped, doors being opened and closed, a crowd of "regular" people chattering indistinctly—and even those sounds are frequently muted by Slaboshpytskiy's penchant for keeping the action at a distance in long shots. The surrounds are an active presence, and their environmental ambiance becomes even more noticeable because so little is competing with them from the front soundstage. Unseen cars passing on roads behind the scene, water dripping from pipes that are just out of sight or the rhythmic clack and rumble of train wheels claim much more attention when the viewer is searching for every scrap of information to comprehend the scene.

The front isn't always quiet, however. Several key scenes are accompanied by intense and sharply rendered effects that can't be described without revealing major plot turns.

The Tribe Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Director Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy and Film Critic Devin Faraci: Faraci does a fine job of prompting the director for information and insight, with frequent assistance from a translator (identified only as "Masha"). Slaboshpytskiy's English is accented but intelligible, and he provides substantial detail, both technical and substantive, about the making of the film.



• Interview with Actress Yana Novikova (1080p; 1.78:1; 21:41): In sign language with English subtitles, the actress who plays Anya describes the casting process and the making of the film, which lasted six months and alternated between rehearsal and shooting.



• Deafness, Slaboshpytskiy's 2010 Award-Winning Short Film (480i; 1.78:1; 9:47): The director has described this short as a "pilot" for The Tribe. It involves an inquiry by a policeman.



• Trailers
• The Tribe
• Borgman
• The Connection
• The Keeping Room
• The Look of Silence



• Booklet: Drafthouse's booklet contains a statement by the director; an interview with the director; an excerpt from the shooting script; stills; and film and disc credits.



• Digital Copy: As always, digital copies from Drafthouse must be downloaded directly and are not available through such services as iTunes or VUDU.

The Tribe Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

With The Tribe, Drafthouse has added yet another worthy entry to its growing library of unique films. Against the chorus of complaints that Hollywood has run out of new ideas, Slaboshpytskiy's feature debut demonstrates that cinematic creativity continues to flourish. You won't even have to read subtitles, although you may end up wishing they were there. Highly recommended, with the caveat that The Tribe is not for those who are easily frustrated (or squeamish).