From Amazon.com: “Product Description: Acclaimed by critics and audiences everywhere, BEYOND SILENCE is the powerful Academy Award(R)-nominated story of a young woman’s battle for independence and her deaf parents’ struggle to understand her gift for music. Given a clarinet by her free-spirited aunt, Lara is immediately consumed by a new passion her parents cannot begin to fully comprehend. Determined to follow her dreams, Lara’s ongoing pursuit of music creates an ever-widening rift that eventually threatens to tear apart her once close-knit family. An inspirational and highly entertaining motion picture offering from Miramax Home Entertainment — you’ll be riveted as this family must somehow learn to reach beyond differences, expectations … and beyond silence … to bring their two worlds together once again!” Read reviews.
This is a great movie. Those who have never been in a deaf/hearing relationship may view it as a little over dramatic, but it is not. Even though this movie is about deaf parents who become dependent on their young hearing child, I relate to this girl in more ways than being in a familiar relationship with a deaf person. One scene that I like very much is where the parents are signing to each other in the privacy of their bedroom. The father feels he is losing his daughter because she has this interest in music that he feels he cannot share. The mother tells him that he must learn to accept her as she is.
“She can hear and we are deaf.”
“She is my child.”
“But she doesn’t belong to you.”
What she meant by this is that he does not own her. Fortunately for this young lady, she did have a good relationship with her father. His dependency on her caused a maturity level in her that enabled her to fight for her independance. Eventually she was able to help her father understand while still expressing her love for him. If only it always worked out that way.
Filed under: Deaf/Hearing Relationship
