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. Directed by Caroline Link Produced by Jakob Claussen Thomas Wöbke Luggi Waldleitner Written by Caroline Link Beth <b>...</b>
Beyond
Silence
Jenseits
der
Stille
German
film
directed
by
Caroline
Link
1996
Produced
Jakob
Claussen
Thomas
Wöbke
Luggi
Waldleitner
Beth
Serlin
Starring
Sylvie
Testud
Howie
Seago
Emmanuelle
Laborit
Sibylle
Canonica
Matthias
Habich
Alexandra
Bolz
Birge
Schade
Music
Niki
Reiser
December
19
112
minutes
germany
movie
Live
Live (band)
Musical Ensemble
