A touching film by Caroline Link sent waves of sorrow and sadness to the film goers at the Goethe-Institut German cultural center in Kacyiru.

Lara (R) and Clarrise (L) doing the sign language.

The German original with English subtitles, ‘Beyond Silence’ did not attract a large crowd as the other movies have done in the past weeks.

Viva Musiime, one of frequent cinema goers, said the film was touching and inspiration story.

“I enjoyed the movie, and the fact that even when caught up in two worlds, the main actress managed to strike a balance between them and still be happy made me like it more,” said Musiime.

Alex Bigira, a local film maker, commended the sounds and shootings of the film.

“The parents to Lara were both deaf but they managed to raise the family and have a home together. I really loved the story,” he said.

Synopsis

The movie ‘Beyond Silence’, which takes place in Germany, starts off with Lara as a young girl, the hearing daughter of deaf parents.

The movie entails the relationship she has with her parents and how she must bridge the gap between her parent’s deaf world and the hearing world in which she lives in. Not only does the movie show the struggles Lara faces as a young girl and young woman with her father, but it also shows the struggles that he has experienced himself with his own hearing family and sister Clarissa.

It is Clarissa who opens Lara’s world to music by introducing her to the clarinet. As Lara grows and matures, so does her love for the clarinet and music.

Now as a young adult, she must make a decision, to leave home and go away to music school or stay and care for her father who is now alone with Lara’s young sister, the mother having passed away

The movie does a brilliant job exhibiting real life issues by showing real struggles that some hearing children face having deaf parents.

Such as, being teased at school; having to leave school early to interpret for her parents at meetings (in which Lara sometimes mis-interprets the message to her advantage); her education suffering because she has other responsibilities; and her feelings of anger because her father cannot share her love for music.

By Patrick Buchana, The New Times