
it's beautifully framed, making great use of a house whose large windows and softly reflective wooden floors allow light to flow freely. This has given writer/director Barak Barkan the chance to focus on his actors and on the technical aspects of production, resulting in a polished piece of work.

One of those smart first feature concepts ideal for shooting on a low budget, Silence & Darkness centres on a single location and uses character dynamics to drive the plot rather than setting up a more demanding storyline. Nevertheless, the three seem happy together and it's not until a neighbour visits the house making strange claims about something she's seen in the nearby woods that the viewer has reason to suspect something might be seriously amiss.


Though it soon becomes apparent that their father is watching them a lot more that he acknowledges, keeping records of their behaviour, it's equally clear that he will never be privy to their intimate communications. We will never know everything the girls gossip about (though it has commonalities, their system is not one conventionally used by deafblind people), but key concerns are clear enough from the urgency of their conversation, the expressions on their faces, and the movements dictated by a well structured script. What is being communicated is not obvious and it's necessary to pay attention to get the git of it. With no subtitles used to reveal what the girls are saying to each other, the viewer is immersed in their world and also experiences a barrier much like those they might expect to encounter in wider society. Anna, in particular, is so confident that at times it would be easy to forget that she can't see. Beyond that opening scene, there is none of the usual heavy-handed focus on difference that is usual in films with characters like these. Knowing their environment well, the sisters navigate it with ease. People in the nearby village, which they visit on a shopping expedition, clearly know them and exchange friendly greetings.

Neither does the fact that their father (Jordan Lage), a doctor, keeps them largely separated from the rest of the world, in his spacious country home. They discuss it with their fingers running along one another's forearms signing is not possible for Anna because she's blind.ĭeafness and blindness have some of the same causes so at first this situation doesn't seem all that unlikely. The latter has the more forceful personality and gets her way, so Beth, who is deaf, has to press her hands up against the set to feel its vibrations and follow what's happening. Beth wants to watch gymnastics on the television Anna wants music. Anna (Mina Walker) and Beth (Joan Glackin) are just like any other pair of teenage sisters stuck at home on a long, quiet day.
