Beyond Silence

Silence is indeed golden in this sensitive and insightful film from Germany, a nominee for this year's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. From the time she was a little girl, Lara (Sylvie Testud) has been more than just a dutiful daughter: Born to deaf parents, Lara, who can hear, has been the vital link connecting her father and mother (Howie Seago and Emmanuelle Laborit) to the outside world. Lara is naturally close to her parents, but begins to find their dependency stifling as she grows older. And she worships her father's sister, Clarissa (Sibylle Canonica), a talented clarinetist who introduces her niece to the world of music -- a world from which her parents ...