As in other disciplines, most films move along familiar terrain, working with long-familiar and thoroughly tested approaches. To the delight of those who like to follow unexplored paths, every now and then a visionary filmmaker comes along with ideas that assault our ingrained way of understanding works of cinema. One such filmmaker is Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, who this May caused a stir in Cannes with his radical debut feature The Tribe. A young deaf-mute, a newcomer at a specialized boarding school, is forced to accept the harsh "tribal” rules of the other boarders. Unexpected romantic leanings toward one of the gang leader’s concubines, however, puts him in a situation from which there is no escape. The director communicates with the viewer exclusively through sign language in a way both fascinating and new, even for experienced audiences. "For me, the main goal was to make a more realistic, natural silent film, which would be easily understood without words. Sign language is like a dance, ballet, pantomime, kabuki theater, etc. At the same time, there’s no grotesque in it – people are communicating that way for real,” explains Slaboshpytskiy.