Miriam Garlo, Álvaro Cervantes, Elena Irureta, Joaquín Notario
Winner of the Berlinale’s Audience Award, Eva Libertad’s immersive drama follows a young couple expecting a baby – Angela (who is deaf, played by deaf actress – and Libertad’s sister – Miriam Garlo) and her hearing partner Hector (Alvaro Cervantes).
Angela has a broad support network, but is most at ease among her deaf friends, who offer her a vital sense of community and belonging. Though a confident and independent person, the impending arrival of her and Hector’s baby – and the question of whether the baby will be hearing or deaf – brings the differences between their experiences of the world and their expectations for parenting into sharp relief.
Through clever use of sound and silence, Deaf absorbs us into Angela’s reality, highlighting the inadequacies of the world for deaf people, which she must now navigate as a new mother, and her apprehension of the fact that her partner, and potentially their child, may never fully understand what life is like for her.