Beyond Silence

At Uni, I'm currently doing a unit on German cinema (which you might have picked up on in my earlier mentions of German directors like Fassbinder). Before the class, I'd seen a couple of movies by Wim Wenders, maybe one by Herzog, Run, Lola, Run and Goodbye Lenin!. But I'd never really thought about German movies other than the ones I'd come across.

Turns out, Germany has a really diverse national film industry. Yesterday, we were supposed to watch Der Blaue Engel, but due to technical difficulties, had to watch a film meant for a bit later in the term, 1996's Beyond Silence. And I loved it.

I'd never heard of Beyond Silence, or its director Caroline Links before the film, and maybe that lack of expectation helped. But it's about a German family, and in particular a young girl called Lara who is a bridge between the real world and her deaf parents. Her father's sister is a gifted clarinetist, who gives Lara her clarinet and supports her musical talent. Lara's father is more resentful of the music, because he can't hear it and is petrified of losing Lara to something he can't relate to. I won't spoil the ending, but I teared up more than once, and really, really enjoyed the film. I can't believe it didn't win Best Foreign Language film at the Oscars that year.

It's a quiet, poetic film that sometimes borders on the sentimental, but I'd definitely recommend it - I think I might try and learn sign language now!