RIFLE RANGE BOY

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 scho...

The Tribe (Plemya, 2014; Ukranian sign language) This must be a milestone in movie making. For the first time, we see a film done completely in sign language, no subtitles and no spoken dialogue. All the actors communicate through sign language. For your information, sign language is not universal. This one was done in Ukrainian sign language and boasts of 43 awards thus far. It tells of a deaf young man who gets enrolled into a school for the deaf. He slowly gets involved in a web of mugging and pimping. A small group of 4 students and 2 girl moonshine after school hours in the bleak unstimulating freezing weather of Ukraine. Things get complicated when the new guy gets romantically linked to one of the girls. Watching the film, one has to make a composite picture of what is happening. The director wanted his audience (both with hearing capability and those challenged) to appreciate it the same way. As the visual way is the only way to appreciate what it is going on, they must ...