as a person who watches films regularly, i get used to watching films a certain way. in most films, sound and visuals work in essentially the same way which allows the viewer to develop a shorthand for deriving meaning and have certain expectations to how information will be dispersed to the viewers. the tribe actively challenges this form by creating a world in which dialogue is occurring but we have no means of translation on screen. this film actively obscures that method of collecting information. while more experimental films and filmmakers have been playing with this and other similar ideas for a long time, it is particularly daring and bold to pay with this in a narrative feature length film in the way that miroslav slaboshpitsky decided to here. it's important to see the distinction between this and watching a film in a language you don't speak without subtitles. those films are designed to tell a story with the knowledge of what is being spoken. slaboshpitsky crafted this film so that the story can be told without knowledge of the dialogue. it's different from a silent film in that there is no score to guide the viewer and the characters are using a specific shorthand sign language that makes it more difficult to derive meaning than reading the different acting style of the silents. this creates a relatively unique film going experience. as a result of this obfuscation, the viewer has to adapt to the form and begin watching the movie a different way. which makes the slow pace of this film critical to its success. the viewer needs time to begin to watch the screen differently and hear sounds differently in order to adjust to this relatively alien form. it's as if the film is speaking a different dialect. the language basics of cinema are all there. but instant understanding of what is being communicated is lacking in some ways. background noises take on a whole new meaning. body language and non-verbal communication are being actively payed attention to in a way that doesn't occur during a normal film experience. we have to pay attention to different things just to fill in the information gap that is created. it astonishes me what a different and intellectually rewarding experience this film became because of this formal choice. it, no doubt, challenges the viewer in unexpected ways, formally. but it's also a very challenging film, in terms of the story it is telling. this is a brutal and unforgiving portrait and story. immediately, we are thrown into the world of crime in a closed institution and we see it through the eyes of the newcomer. and what develops is a study on the complexities of modern society and an unveiling of how these structures and complexities are no better than the structures and complexities of tribal societies, which are commonly thought of as being more simple and, by implication, worse. it struck me as a sort of foucauldian look at society and institutions. and while the film is a bit cold, and somewhat indifferent, there is plenty of things to think about with this film, even if it is hard to connect to emotionally. in the end, this is a challenging and brutal film going experience that is ultimately rewarding in several different ways.