The emphasis on family unit.

CODA (2021)
Director: Sian Heder

Now we know they are two meanings to the word 'coda'. As we have come to know it, the first word refers in music to the closing passage in a music piece. As the root word in Latin suggests, Coda is Italian refers to the tail (e.g. cauda equina is the sack of nerve fibres that fan out like a horsetail at the posterior end). The word's second meaning is actually an abbreviation for 'Child of Deaf Adult'. In essence, it refers to the child who grew up with non-hearing parents.

This film is about a CODA, a high school girl, Ruby, who grows up with both mute parents and an elder brother who is also mute. This tightly-knitted family of four live by the coast. Father is a fisherman helped by his son, who dropped out of school early due to disability. Ruby juggles between school and helping her father on a fishing boat. The understanding is that Ruby is to help out in the family business after high school.

By chance, after joining the school choir club, when Ruby sees an attractive boy enter the club, she is discovered by her teacher to have hidden talents. Long story short, she is in a position to go to Berklee Music School. In the background, the fishing community is fighting the middle men's menace who impinge on their earnings. As the rest of the community is not well versed in sign language, Ruby is a valuable asset who can correctly voice out her father's great ideas. Ruby's absence also lands the father and son team in trouble due to their hearing impairment.

Marilee Martin, an Oscar winner, is said to be
instrumental in ensuring the right cast

Ruby's dilemma now is this. Even though Ruby loves singing and has a bright future ahead of her, she loves her family more. Leaving for Berkelee would mean the family has to fend for themselves in an environment that is already fighting for its own survival.

Themes like these are not ground shattering. We have had this type of self-sacrificial coming-of-age story before. What makes this different is that, in keeping with frequent cries against cultural misappropriation, the filmmakers ensured real-life hearing-impaired actors. That itself is a recipe for an Academy Award nomination. Added with the emphasis on the family unit strength gives its contenders a run for its money.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.