To say that Ukrainian director Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s “The Tribe” is unsettling is an understatement. I’m not one who typically gets squeamish in a movie theater, but there is more than one scene in the film, which opens at Film Forum on June 17, that had me, well, not exactly covering my eyes, but certainly diverting them from the screen.The film, which premiered during the International Critics’ Week sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival in 2014 (where it won the Grand Prize), takes place in Kiev at a boarding school for deaf children. A new student arrives by bus one day and, after a few awkward moments, is quickly accepted among a group of students who dabble in crime, from petty theft to prostitution. Soon enough, the new student is enmeshed in the lifestyle, hanging in the background as the gang robs unsuspecting victims and hustles other students for the change in their pocket.The film is completely devoid of traditional dialogue, the characters speaking in Ukrainian sign language that is un-subtitled. Since most people who see the film will be completely unfamiliar with what is being said, focus drifts to other aspects on screen. But to think of “The Tribe” as a silent film would be incorrect. Sound is very important here; it even adds tension to the scenes of crime, especially one in particular where a small group of deaf kids follows a man out of a department store, tracking him in relative silence for a few hundred yards, the only sound the crinkling gravel under their feet. When they finally reach their mark, the sudden blast of violence is direct and vicious.Eventually, the new student is put in charge of a prostitution ring organized by the group. Joined by two female students, they walk back and forth along the rows of drivers at a secluded truck stop, tapping on windows and offering the bodies of the girls for a price. When the new student develops an obsession with one of the girls, he tries to pry her away, with little success. What happens is an unfortunate trail of violence that is shocking in its simplicity and relentlessness. Hence wanting to close my eyes.My biggest problem with “The Tribe” is also one of its greatest attributes. Slaboshpytskiy keeps a steady movement of the camera at all times; most of the action unfolds in long takes, at times up to 10 minutes in length. In total, the film has roughly 30 shots (as a comparison, recent Hollywood blockbuster “Mad Max: Fury Road” has roughly 22.5 cuts per minute). This puts more focus on the movement of bodies within the frame, especially the way in which the main character begins to walk with more purpose and focus, maybe even madness, as the film progresses. When “The Tribe” opens, the camera hangs back in the distance — it’s hard to decipher which figure on screen is the character we’re supposed to be following. By the end, when the camera moves closer and unflinchingly holds its gaze, the focus is almost sadistic. The filmmaker wants us to suffer. But when that is the director’s only motivation, it’s best described as banal cruelty.
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