Beyond Silence (1996 film)
| Jenseits der Stille | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Caroline Link |
| Produced by | Jakob Claussen Thomas Wöbke Luggi Waldleitner |
| Written by | Caroline Link Beth Serlin |
| Starring | Sylvie Testud Howie Seago Emmanuelle Laborit Sibylle Canonica Matthias Habich Alexandra Bolz Birge Schade |
| Music by | Niki Reiser |
| Release date(s) | December 19, 1996 |
| Running time | 112 minutes |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German German Sign Language |
Beyond Silence (German: Jenseits der Stille) is a 1996 German film directed by Caroline Link.
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[edit] Synopsis
Lara's parents are deaf and she is responsible for interpreting and helping them interact with the hearing world.
On Christmas Day, her aunt Clarissa, a music-lover, gives her a clarinet, and Lara begins to discover the world of music, which is completely unknown to her parents. She becomes a talented clarinetist, and, when she is 18 years old, she wants to enroll at the Berlin conservatoire. Her desire to attend the conservatoire conflicts with her father’s dependence on her and his grief after his wife's death in an accident.
The movie does a great job of portraying the experiences of a hearing child of deaf parents, compared to the more frequent portrayal of stories with parents whose child turns out to be deaf. Set in a small town, the film also shows the difficulties Lara's parents have in communicating with anyone else as no one else signs, and being in a small town, they cannot find a good interpreter. It's an interesting parallel to draw with children of immigrants who often have to serve as interpreters for their parents, even in serious situations (see Spanglish_(film)). Furthermore, the movie shows how technology has made vast improvements for the hearing-impaired with subtitles on TV and movies. Namely, Beyond Silence shows Lara signing the dialogue of a romantic movie for her mother because closed captioning is not yet available where they live.
[edit] Awards
- 1997: Deutscher Filmpreis:Best Actress (Testud) and Best Music. Nominations for Best Film, Best Director and Best New Actor (Laborit)
- 1997: Bayerischer Filmpreis Best New Director and Best Music.
- 1997: Tokyo International Film Festival, Grand Prix
- 1998: Nomination to Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
[edit] Book
- Caroline Link: Jenseits der Stille, Aufbau, 2001, ISBN 3746614538 (Novel)
[edit] External links
- Ungewöhnliche Dreharbeiten - Bayrischer Rundfunk
- Filmeintrag auf omdb.org with underground information
- Beyond Silence at the Internet Movie Database
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