NZIFF: Deaf (2)

A woman navigates the experience of motherhood as a deaf person in a hearing world in Eva Libertad’s crowd-pleasing, feel-good drama which collected the Panaroma Audience Award at Berlin this year.

Based on the award-winning short of the same name, Spanish filmmaker Eva Libertad’s debut follows couple Ángela and Héctor as they make the transition into parenthood. Ángela is deaf. Héctor is not. When she tells them she’s pregnant, her own parents can’t hide their shocked dubiety, loving but concerned that their daughter will be unable to tackle the task of motherhood. Will the baby be born deaf? Will they be able to hear? Uncertainty abounds as the due date draws closer, and it’s not just Ángela’s parents who are beginning to have doubts.

The foundations for the film’s narrative derive from the personal experiences of first-time actor Miriam Garlo, Libertad’s own sister, as she began to contemplate motherhood as a deaf woman. When surrounded by her other deaf friends, Ángela is comfortable, alive, vibrant within a community that supports her. Around the local mums in the park, or her husband’s friends, isolation sets in with a painful immediacy that anyone who has ever been in a foreign country and struggled to understand the language will know all too well. A poignant story bound by the chemistry of its leads, deafness is woven into the film as a lived experience, not a defining label. — Matt Bloomfield

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