Showing @ Cineworld, Glasgow, Thurs 27 & Fri 28 Feb
Maximón Monihan / Guatemala/USA / 2013 / 85 mins
Filmed in black and white and using low frequency sounds to mirror the aural world of its main character, The Voice of the Voiceless could be called a semi-silent film. It certainly borrows from the language of the early years of Hollywood to tell its story of the resilience and resistance of a young deaf girl in the Big Apple. Sent from Guatemala by her parents to attend a deaf college in New York, Olga (Janeva Adena) finds herself exploited and abused by a criminal gang, forced to trade towelettes and pity on the Subway.
Director Maximón Monihan could easily have made this film yet another brutalising tale of an innocent abroad, but instead we get a compassionate and sometimes very funny tale of survival. Olga’s rebellion is to hold on to her childlike joy and sense of fantasy despite everything that happens to her. Monihan blends fantastic elements into the story without seeming forced and Adena’s expressive face is able to show the full range of her emotions. Inevitably this is a film that shows rather than tells, but by embracing the silence and the power of image, Monihan has made film that opens our eyes to an unknown world and speaks volumes.