A deaf mute teenager enters a specialized boarding school where, to survive, he becomes part of a wild organization – the Tribe.
His love for one of the concubines will unwillingly lead him to break all the unwritten rules within the Tribe’s hierarchy.

It’s been my old dream to do homage to the silent movie. To make a film that can be understood without a single voiced word. It’s not that I was thinking about some kind of a European “existential” movie in which the heroes would keep silence throughout half the film. And besides, actors were not silent in the silent movie. They communicated very actively through a wealth of byplay and body language. They could communicate emotions and feelings without a line to say. And it is not by incident that most of silent movie stars had come from the pantomime. This is exactly why I’ve always wanted to shoot a film about the life of deaf-and-dumb people. With no speech and with no subtitles. And with the participation of real deaf mute people.
While I was working on the short DEAFNESS, which I considered to be a kind of a pilot for a future full feature, I made many contacts with the Ukrainian deaf-and-dumb community and the heads of the Ukrainian societies of deaf people. I also came to know the leaders of the informal “shadow” community, who revealed to me their isolated world from inside, the ways and the rituals of this community, one of the most closed ones.
This film is completely based on my school memories and on what’s been told me by my consultants from the world of deaf-and-dumb people. With all its seeming simplicity and seeming violence, this is a film about very young people. And very young people are capable of strong pure feelings: love, hatred, fury, anger, despair. One does not need words to express these emotions.
I see this film as a humanistic story of love and initiation – a story of entering the adult life in the cruel world.