The Tribe (18)
Directed by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy
4/5

AS TEEN coming-of-age films go, you’re unlikely to forget The Tribe in a hurry.

It leaves an indelible mark because its brutality is portrayed without one syllable of dialogue being uttered.

The all-deaf cast of amateur actors communicate in sign language throughout but there are no subtitles or voiceover and the film begins with a disclaimer to this effect.

A bold move, and it’s a gamble by Ukrainian film maker Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy in his debut feature which comes off — actions certainly speak louder than words in this instance.

As we’re slowly drawn into this silent world of teenage gang culture, the realisation soon dawns that what is broadly going is more comprehensible than might have been expected. What is frustrating, though, is that this doesn’t apply to the minutiae of the conversations between the different characters, which would have provided more context.

The film tracks the arrival of Sergey (Grigoriy Fesenko) to a boarding school from hell for the deaf, where he is recruited by the ruling teenage gang — the tribe of the film’s title — who deal in crime and prostitution.

After proving himself by getting stuck into the gang’s exploits he soon rises through the ranks and is allowed to escort their girls to the local lorry park where they are pimped out to truck drivers.

But Sergey’s “promising” future is cut short when he falls in love with one of the teen prostitutes, superbly played by Yana Novikova.

Slaboshpytskiy extracts extraordinary performances from his non-professional cast and delivers a viciously violent drama which is excruciating to watch. My only beef is that the backstreet abortion scene is gratuitously graphic, as are the harrowingly detailed killing of four gang members in their sleep by Sergey.

Even so, The Tribe is an ambitious work which leaves you shell-shocked and as speechless as its protagonists.

Not for those of a nervous disposition.