Spoiler Alert: Cinema Wellman Ruins The Tribe

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Today’s blog is the first of a planned series that will be known as “Spoiler Alert!”

From time to time when I’m writing about a movie, I’ll mention that I won’t spoil it for you. I do this because I care about you as a moviegoer. It’s just a common courtesy. You may want to see the movie on your own, and I want you to have the same initial experience as I did.

These “Spoiler Alert” blogs will be dedicated to giving away anything and everything about a movie. The rules are pretty simple…if you haven’t seen the movie and want to at some point…SKIP the post.  If you don’t think you’ll ever see the movie I’m spoiling or will watch it anyway knowing all about it…full speed ahead!

Today Cinema Wellman will “ruin” the 2014 Ukrainian film The Tribe.

This is probably the third post in which I’ve mentioned The Tribe (I mentioned it LAST WEEK because it has no score!) The reason I mention it so much is because it made such an impact on me. 

The movie has been described as brutal, unique, experimental, bleak, shocking, and disturbing. And, for what it’s worth shockingly disturbing. 

So, the last chance to exit before The Tribe is “ruined.”

…

Okay. Thanks for sticking around. Here we go.

IMDb: “A deaf boy joins a boarding school for similar children. Confronted by the violent criminal antics of some of the other boys and girls, he struggles to conform and join the ‘tribe’.”

As I’ve previously mentioned while writing about this movie, all of the actors in this film are deaf. The film is in Ukrainian sign language, and we get zero help.

An intro screen reads: “This film is in sign language. There are no translations, no subtitles, no voice-over.”

As an audience, we’re on our own to interpret what’s going on by watching the actors sign while they act. It is, at times, extremely challenging to do all of the interpreting on the basis of a character's signs and actions. And that’s part of the point of this movie. 

Members of the deaf community are in the minority. When watching this film, the viewer is the minority and on the outskirts of whatever is going on because we just can’t interpret sign language. We are the outsiders. And the actors are using Ukrainian sign language! If you know ASL, you’d only be able to read 70% of the signs in this film. 

And, as I mentioned in last week’s blog, the fact that this is a scoreless film makes it even more amazing. It is truly a silent movie.

One more fact that makes this movie unique and unforgettable is that it consists of only 34 shots. That’s 34 shots in 126 minutes. That’s almost 4 minutes a shot! There are some lingering scenes in this film, and some of them are downright grisly. 

The Tribe centers around Sergei, the new boy at this absolutely terrifying boarding school. The school is run by the “King” and the members of his “Tribe.” What the King and his Tribe do on a regular basis include shakedowns, robberies, assaults, and pimping out female classmates at truck stops. This is a nasty bunch. 

Upon arrival, Sergei is bullied mercilessly and ganged up on in a four on one fight. When Sergei actually stands up to the bullies and fights back, he’s allowed to join “The Tribe.”

At the start, Sergei embraces life as a member of the tribe and participates in all of the sordid criminal activities or antics as IMDb called them. When I think of antics I think of “Ding-Dong-Ditch” and toilet papering someone’s house. IMDb thinks of assault, battery, and sex trafficking. 

Sergei participates in this behavior until he falls in love with Anya, one of his classmates being pimped out. Sergei loves Anya and wants to save her. Anya doesn’t want to be saved and is trying to escape the school and the country by getting a passport so she and a friend, Svetka, can go to Italy. Sergei later literally eats Anya’s passport to prevent her getting away from him. Sergei is a good guy in this movie up until the moment he joins the tribe. He’s good for maybe 20 minutes in this movie, and then he’s all tribe.

Being overprotective of Anya eventually causes Sergei problems within the group. He breaks rules and is kicked out of the tribe. He is then severely beaten by the four bullies who had tormented him since his arrival. 

Sergei is out for revenge, and the ending of this film is what has stuck with me for so many years. For research purposes I wanted to watch the ending again. I found the movie on Tubi and ended up watching just about all of it. It’s mesmerizing!

I didn’t time the last shot of the film, but I’m guessing it was more than the four-minute average. Bent on revenge, we follow Sergei as he walks down the silent halls of his school in the middle of the night. 

Sergei enters the dorm room of two of the bullies. They are fast asleep. The room is a typical dorm with beds on either side. This room featured two nightstands between the beds. One per person. 

You have to remember that there is ZERO music for this movie. It is scoreless. All you get is natural sounds. 

When in the room, Sergei looks at the sleeping classmates. He then picks up one of the nightstands and crushes the skull of one of the boys as he sleeps. Remember. No music. It’s all-natural sound.

When I first saw this I remember thinking, “Oh no! Why isn’t the other guy waking up?!?!” And then it hit me. He’s deaf. 

Sergei then picks up the other nightstand and does the same exact thing to tormentor number two. 

I was stunned. I was shocked. I was speechless. I was gob smacked!

As this single shot continues, Sergei leaves the room and walks down the hall. I was thinking, “NO!!! Oh no!! Sergei is going after the other two bullies!!! The director isn’t going to show it, is he?!?! Is he going to make us watch that again?!?!.”

Damn right he is. Sergei enters room number two, does the same exact thing sans music in all-natural sound, exits the room and walks down the stairs. This is still one shot. 

Roll credits. 

Consider The Tribe “ruined.” We hope we sufficiently ruined the movie for you and remember that you asked for it.

And that’s a wrap for the first “Spoiler Alert!” blogpost!

Thank you for sticking around.

Join us next week for the Best & Worst movies screened here at Cinema Wellman in the month of April!

Until then, take care.