Le pays des sourds

What does the world of the death looking like, they who are always living in the silence? We are travelling to this exotic land where the actions to look and and to touch are such important.

Standing in front of a sheet of music, four deaf persons gesture with their hands in chorus. This unusual musical approach to the world of silence leaves no doubt as to the filmmaker’s intention: “set our usual view of the deaf on its head, to rehabilitate their culture”. In this film, Nicolas Philibert exceptionally does not confine himself to a single site, Instead his camera roves from a school for teaching children how to pronounce sounds and words to a class in sign language, then on to interviews with several adults on what it is like to be deaf, to stage performances by a deaf-mute actor and, finally, to a wedding… The eponymous “land of the deaf” knows no boundaries, but it does boast a marvellous, surprisingly nuanced language that is highly communicative. Philibert not only took up that language himself, but made it the film’s “mother tongue”. This obliged him to rethink his film grammar in its entirety, for here there are no voice-overs, and getting their words on film means a greater number of frames. Never having had access to such a space to express themselves, these deaf persons make the most of it once it is put at their disposal. The scene where a little boy grabs hold of the sound recordist’s boom comes to mind. Being able to carry on such a full dialogue with this admirably unpretentious community is a new experience: its wealth, solidarity and ultimate freedom deserve to be released from silence.
Visions du Réel Nyon