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Darius Marder (USA) debuted with Sound of Metal (2019), which is a somewhat moving parable.
A young man who doesn't seem to have a family (a deadbeat father, a mother who doesn't seem to exist anymore, no siblings, no friends) has to give up the one
thing that defines his identity and his life: drumming.
The fear of losing one's creative life leads first to panic, then to trying to
find a way out, then to acceptance. It's a psychological rollercoaster that points to how a person needs to face its condition and learn to find and like the positive aspects of it.
Ruben and his girlfriend Lou are punk-rockers who tour the country performing at night-clubs. Lou is the singer and guitarist, Ruben is the drummer. The music is loud. They live in an RV. One day he suddenly realizes that he can't hear well.
Initially he doesn't tell Lou. He visits a pharmacy and is directed to a specialist who tells him that his hearing is deteriorating rapidly and first of all he needs to stay away from loud sounds. Instead, he keeps playing with Lou. But the hearing is so bad that he can hardly hear what she says: she has to write her sentences on a piece of paper. Lou is shocked and decides to cancel the tour.
She calls a friend, Hector, who recommends an isolated retreat run by a deaf man, Joe, for deaf addicts like Ruben. They drive to the place, meet Joe (who is deaf but can read lips) and Joe tells Ruben that he is welcome even if he has no money but on condition that he truly surrenders: no contact with the outside world.
Joe warns Ruben that his goal is not to heal ears but to heal minds, i.e. to make deaf people accept that there is something wonderful about being deaf.
In fact, the deaf people who live in Joe's humble barn seem to be happy.
Ruben, however, has no intention of giving up his musical life and to become
a hermit in the forest. The specialist mentioned that there are cochlear implants for cases like his, and Ruben drems of saving enough money to get one.
However, he loses his temper, and Lou gets scared.
When Lou gets a recording contract, she decides to send Ruben back to Joe's place and continue her musical career alone.
Ruben has no choice. Joe takes his phone and parks his RV outside. Slowly,
Ruben learns sign language and socialize with the others. Joe tries to teach
Ruben how to live with his condition, and, seeing how Ruben bonds with the children, even
invites him to become a volunteer employee like the teacher and himself.
Ruben, however, can't stand it anymore. He secretly sells all his belongings and the RV, and uses Joe's computer to find out where Lou is.
Then he pays for the implant. The doctors tell him that he has to wait a few weeks before he'll be able to use it. Ruben returns to Joe's place and asks to stay for a few weeks, but Joe explains that the whole point of his community is to
remind every day to the deaf that it's ok to be deaf. Joe has betrayed that
commandment and is not welcome anymore. Ruben survives in motels until the
big day. The doctors
activate the
implant and Ruben has been hoping all the time of getting back his hearing, but
instead he
is disappointed that he can hear sounds only with a grating distortion.
Nonetheless, he flies to Paris where Lou is living with her wealthy father.
is living with her wealthy father.
Lou welcomes Ruben but Ruben quickly realizes that he cannot live a normal life
because he can't quite hear normally. And in any case Lou has moved on and is
not excited to go back to their nomadic life.
They sleep together but the following morning Ruben sneaks out of the house
with his backpack. He sits on a bench in a park and watches and listens to
what is happening around him. The distoreted sounds are annoying. He takes out
the implant and stares silently at the world without sounds.
(Copyright © 2024 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
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