The Tribe

The Tribe (Плем'я, 2014) is a Ukrainian drama you can watch online on iFILM. Director Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi made a radical choice: the entire 130-minute film is performed in Ukrainian Sign Language, with no subtitles and no spoken words. You don't need to understand a single sign to follow every beat.

Sergey arrives at a state boarding school for the deaf. The place runs on a parallel set of rules — a criminal hierarchy called the Tribe controls everything from petty theft to prostitution. He fights his way up through the ranks. Then he falls for Anya, one of the gang leader's girls, and everything comes apart. The film doesn't flinch, and it doesn't explain itself.

Three prizes at Cannes 2014 in the Un Certain Regard section brought the film international attention. Slaboshpytskyi shoots in long, static takes that feel closer to surveillance footage than cinema — which makes the violence, when it lands, hit even harder. Stream The Tribe (2014) online on iFILM.