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One of the must-see films of the summer, Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy‘s debut feature film The Tribe is devoid of any spoken words, music, voice-over or even subtitles. Set in a specialized boarding school for young deaf adolescents, the story focuses primarily on Sergey (Grigoriy Fesenko), a down-on-his-luck teenager seemingly abandoned by his family and left to find refuge in an environment more conducive for the handicapped. We now have the first U.S. trailer ahead of a release in June, featuring one of our quotes.

We said in our review, “Stylistically, the film is shot in stunning, unbroken long takes reminiscent of Cristian Mungiu, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and even Bela Tarr (minus the black and white). While there is a formality to this type of cinema, the mise-en-scène feels stripped down and more apropos to a gritty crime film, akin to something like Jacques Audiard’s The Prophet. Yet the scope and ambition of the mild-mannered narrative propels it to something more grandiose like The Godfather. Keep in mind that with all this going on, the film still demands one’s utmost attention if there’s hope to glean any of the subtleties and nuance of what is actually happening, thus making the emotional investment in the characters that more potent. As the film spirals to its horrific climax, the performances of these young actors is a marvel to witness, channeling painful truths of Ukrainian culture. Easily the most intense movie experience of the the year, The Tribe is an unsettling examination of how the oppressed can become the oppressor.”

Check out the trailer and gorgeous poster below.

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Winner of multiple 2014 Cannes Film Festival Awards (including the coveted Critics’ Week Grand Prix), Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s “The Tribe” is an undeniably original and intense feature debut set in the insular world of a Ukrainian high school for the deaf. Teenage Sergey (Grigoriy Fesenko), a new student at the boarding school, realizes immediately that he must prove himself worthy to be brought under the protective wing of the school gang’s leader to survive unscathed. After an indoctrination of harmless initiation pranks and rites, Sergey’s newfound clique soon introduces him to their common activities of robbery, bribery and prostitution. At first assimilating seamlessly into his new role in the tribe, he finds himself compromised as he begins to fall in love with his female classmate—and one of the gang’s escorts—triggering a sequence of stunningly diabolical events.

The Tribe opens on June 17th.

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