Lara's parents are deaf and dumb. She consequently had to accept responsibility from a very early age. After finishing school, Lara plans to leave the small Bavarian town to study music in Berlin. This creates major problems with her father, problems which are intensified by her mother's death.

Lara's parents are deaf and dumb. This changes the relationship of power and obligation within the family, for the girl has to act as an intermediary with the outside world from an early age and must also "translate", be it a telephone call, the meeting between her parents and her teacher, or when negotiating a loan with the bank. Her father's fear of losing his daughter is inevitably more deep-seated than in other cases. When Lara leaves her home town in Lower Bavaria after completing her school education and goes to Berlin to study, she is unable to shed the feeling of running away from a responsibility that bears heavily upon her.

Her aunt in Berlin played a major part in Lara's decision to play clarinet and prepare for the examinations admitting her to the Conservatory. Even as a child, Clarissa did not get on well with her brother, Lara's father Martin. This makes Lara's departure even more painful for the deaf-and-dumb man, who feels that Lara has made a decision in favour of Clarissa and against him, particularly since the world of music is beyond his reach.

At first, Lara lives with Clarissa and the latter's husband Gregor in Berlin. Her attitude towards her own life changes when she meets the deaf-and-dumb teacher Tom. She now takes a less tragic view of her childhood. Then she hears that her mother has died in an accident; Lara feels even more responsible for her father, but he indirectly accuses her of being partly to blame for her mother's death. After a violent dispute, Lara leaves her father's house and returns to Berlin. On the day of the examination, Lara's father unexpectedly arrives to see his daughter play on stage for the first time.

Under no circumstances should JENSEITS DER STILLE be interpreted purely as a film about disabled people, although the director consistently describes the world as experienced by deaf people. "I wanted to tell a love story, to produce a film about growing up and how difficult it is to find one's own way at first and then also to keep to that path. The situation is naturally made more dramatic by the fact that there is a certain dependent relationship between the father and his daughter. But I do not pity the deaf people, not when they can live their lives in what they consider to be the right way. Unfortunately, that is not a matter of course in Germany. Sign language is still prohibited in many schools today. These children grow up in total isolation! That is the subject of my film and it is a matter of great importance to me, although it was not the only reason for telling this story." (Caroline Link)

Caroline Link's production accurately shows just what can be achieved in German cinema today: in other words, more thematic diversity than the numerous comedies would indicate, but perhaps also less aesthetic radicalism than might be desired for this particular story. The film clearly reveals the director's efforts not to burden her audience with images in addition to the complexity of the story. Nevertheless, there is an annoying gloss about them, the perfect light and colour give the film a certain smoothness and some scenes, such as the naked aunt bathing in the moonlight, reveal the effort necessary to score a box office hit.

Perhaps the 32 year-old director also overdoes the melodramatic moments: Lara's mother's death in an accident could belong in the category of "intensifying the situation" as maintained by study seminars for actors and would-be dramatists; the first scenes of Berlin may also be too distinctly reminiscent of tourist films of the capital. Obviously afraid of being misunderstood, the director sometimes also lets the dialogue explicitly digress on things that the viewer has long since seen and understood. These rather straight scenes are set off by other, more serious and more urgent scenes, such as that in which a group of deaf-and-dumb people "sing" the Tedeum in a church - but only through sign language. Caroline Link's faith in the emotions of her story is also remarkable and they never degenerate into tearfulness over her characters' handicaps. It is precisely because the film is full of pity but never seeks respite in pitiful posturing that the film's characters retain their dignity and their right to bad moments.

The director has succeeded in her intention of reaching a larger audience far removed from successful comedies. JENSEITS DER STILLE may not have been a "megahit" in the cinema winter of 1996/97, but it was well-received by both the public and the critics. " Aided by outstanding actors, Caroline Link has intelligently and sensitively told the story of a highly talented young woman who had to her assert her musical calling against her deaf-and-dumb parents. Everything, including the music, seems to be right in this moving story and the director seems to be totally unafraid of sentiments and emotions. No-one will leave the cinema with a dry eye after seeing this film." (Süddeutsche Zeitung) The film was nominated as the German contribution for an Oscar in Hollywood in autumn 1997.

Production Country

Germany (DE), Switzerland (CH)

Production Period

1995/1996

Production Year

1996

color

color

Aspect Ratio

1:1,85

Duration

Feature-Length Film (61+ Min.)

Type

Feature Film

Genre

Drama

Topic

Love, Relationship / Family, Coming of Age, Education, Psychology, Music, Illness / Addiction / Physical impairment

Available Media

35mm, DVD

Original Version

German (de)

35mm

Subtitles

English (en), French (fr), Spanish (es)

DVD

Subtitles

English (en), French (fr), Spanish (es), Portuguese (Brazil) (pt)