The Tribe

Critics Consensus

A bleak, haunting drama whose wordless dialogue speaks volumes, The Tribe is a bold, innovative take on silent films for a contemporary audience.

The Tribe Photos

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Movie Info

Somewhere in Ukraine, Sergey enters a specialized boarding school for the deaf. Alone in this new and unfamiliar place, he must find his way through the school's hierarchy. Sergey quickly encounters the tribe, a student gang dealing in crime and prostitution. After passing their hazing rituals and being inducted into the group, he takes part in several robberies and begins to work his way up the chain of command to become pimp-protector for two of the girls, who turn tricks at the local truck stop. Finding himself in love with one of them, Sergey ultimately breaks all the unwritten rules of the tribe, with tragic consequences. (c) Drafthouse

Rating:

NR
Genre:

Art House & International, Drama
Directed By:

Miroslav Slaboshpitsky
Written By:

Miroslav Slaboshpitsky
In Theaters:

Jun 17, 2015 wide
On Disc/Streaming:

Mar 8, 2016
Box Office:

$76,637
Runtime:

130 minutes
Studio:

Drafthouse Films

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Cast

Grigoriy Fesenko
as Sergey

Yana Novikova
as Anna

Rosa Babiy
as Svetka

Alexander Dsiadevich
as Gera

Alexander Osadchiy
as King

Ivan Tishko
as Makar

Alexander Sidelnikov
as Shynr

Alexander Panivan
as Woodwork Teacher

Kirill Koshik
as Sponsor

Tatiana Radchenko
as Principal

Ludmila Rudenko
as History Teacher

Marina Panivan
as Nora

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Critic Reviews for The Tribe

All Critics (131) | Top Critics (33) | DVD (1)

The movie features no music, and no words, yet some moments are so powerful and visceral that I still caught myself covering my ears.

Dec 31, 2015 | Rating: A- | Full Review…

Will Leitch
The New Republic
Top Critic
The Tribe revels in the distance it leaves between its audience and its characters, but in placing viewers on the outside, it also creates an experience that's almost perversely empathetic.

Nov 9, 2015 | Full Review…

Alison Willmore
BuzzFeed News
Top Critic
This is a challenging film that's not for everyone. Yet there's no denying its brilliant concept and its raw cinematic power.

Sep 2, 2015 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

David Lewis
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic
There is nothing else like The Tribe, at once a searing, singular vision of a particular time and place and a brutal metaphor for the wounded human condition.

Aug 6, 2015 | Rating: 5/5

Cary Darling
Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
Top Critic
If there's one place where love has no place, it's here.

Jul 31, 2015 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review…

Matthew Lickona
San Diego Reader
Top Critic
If "The Tribe" were set in the hearing world, its desolation would seem reductive and forced, a pose rather than a statement. Without words, the movie becomes a nihilistic fable and, indeed, something unheard of until now. It's silent opera.

Jul 23, 2015 | Full Review…

Ty Burr
Boston Globe
Top Critic
The Tribe could have gotten away with its desire to be nothing more than an ode to the virtues of rehearsal, if it didn't try to pretend it was anything more than that.

Jun 3, 2019 | Rating: 4/10 | Full Review…

C.J. Prince
Way Too Indie
Miroslav Slaboshpitsky's audacious feature debut masters visual storytelling without a single utterance.

May 31, 2019 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review…

Cameron Ward
One Room With A View
It's a fascinating storytelling experiment, always teetering on the edge of gimmickry, mesmerizing and pointless, with an incredibly indulgent string of unpleasantness that dominates the final third.

Apr 17, 2019 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Daniel Barnes
Dare Daniel
Unique to the personality of the actor, each facial expression and action is charged with attitude and emotion, culminating in a visceral, abrasive physicality that is terrifying in its intensity.

Apr 5, 2019 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Christine Jun
CineVue
Slaboshpitsky's The Tribe is gripping, tour de force cinema from its opening jab, and from there it continually forces you against the ropes before delivering a knockout punch with a gut-wrenching conclusion destined to leave audiences stunned.

Apr 2, 2019 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review…

Ben Nicholson
CineVue
The Tribe was made for an audience waiting for an authentically beautiful and powerful piece of cinematic art.

Nov 8, 2018 | Full Review…

Morgan Rojas
Cinemacy

View All Critic Reviews (131)

Audience Reviews for The Tribe

Apr 06, 2016

Most of movies, for me, are the audio. How an actor speaks, how sounds move with each other, how the soundtrack fits in. This one is just shuffling and ambient sounds. It's about deaf people in the Ukraine. I'm sure a rough place to be, and, considering the setting, characters, and events, it is remarkable engaging. As to whether I would watch this film again, I will do my best to avoid it. It's incredibly depressing. I'm sure it's incredibly realistic, and I wish it weren't. There is absolutely nothing positive about this film, and I'm pretty sure the filmmakers were going for that. Good job everybody, I'm going to go cry in the shower now.

K Nife C Super Reviewer
Jul 27, 2015

Made in 34 fabulous long takes, this unique and relentlessly brutal film is a revolutionary illustration of the "show, don't tell" cinematic rule, more so as it refuses to offer any translation of the language that we see on the screen and yet remains always comprehensible to us viewers.

Carlos M Super Reviewer
Jul 26, 2015

One of the best films of the year so far with a truly original format. An absolute must see!

ZACHO D Super Reviewer
Jul 24, 2015

After being enrolled at a school for the deaf in the Ukraine, Sergey(Grygoriy Fesenko) has lunch with a random student. Suddenly, he is plucked from the social depths of this society to hang out with the cool kids who rudely introduce him to Anya(Yana Novikova) and Svetka(Roza Babiy). After which, he is formally initiated into this new society. And then finds out exactly what they do after classes and what he got himself into. "The Tribe" is a constructive movie about perceptions. That is fueled by the way it is filmed, namely all in sign language without the benefit of subtitles. This goes beyond being a simple experiment with its exquisite long takes. All of which gives the viewer an opportunity to interpret the actions of the various characters involved, some of which may seem desperate to outsiders, especially as depicted in such graphic fashion. Into this milieu is thrown Sergey, an innocent at first.

Walter M Super Reviewer