In the Land of the Deaf

One of the most acclaimed documentaries of the decade, this beautiful film transports the viewer into "the land of the deaf," a world of silence inhabited by an estimated 130 million people worldwide. With unerring curiosity and sensitivity, French filmmaker Nicolas Philibert portrays the difficulties and joys of being deaf, offering vivid portraits of, among others, a charismatic sign language teacher, a woman who was treated as mentally ill because her deafness was not properly diagnosed, a young man who remembers the first, horrifying experience of hearing with an aid, a newlywed deaf couple trying to communicate with a real estate agent. Philibert and his subjects kick the pylons out from stereotypes and misconceptions about deafness, and explore "deaf culture" and the growing controversy around a "cure" for deafness. By turns funny, poignant, illuminating, and disturbing, In the Land of the Deaf will make you see (and perhaps hear) the world anew. On no account to be missed.