Deaf

Ángela is deaf and Héctor is hearing. They have been together a long time and are expecting their first child. Her fear is not about the pregnancy: if the child hears, how much will she be able to communicate with her own daughter. After the birth the hospital, the family and daily life keep leaving her outside; everyone talks to Héctor. Eva Libertad writes and directs. Miriam Garlo plays Ángela and Álvaro Cervantes plays Héctor. The most important fact about the casting: Miriam Garlo is the director's sister and is deaf. Libertad first made this as a short film of the same name in 2023, which was nominated for a Goya, and the feature continues it. The method is sound design. When a scene moves into Ángela's perception the sound is not cut but muffled, and you cannot follow what is being said; a hearing viewer is held in her position for a while. It is a point of view established without explanation. The second line is the relationship itself. Héctor does not behave badly; the boundary between being an interpreter and being a partner simply dissolves, and it exhausts them both. It won the Panorama Audience Award at the 2025 Berlinale and opened in Spain on 4 April 2025. Who it is for: viewers who want deaf experience told from inside, and Spanish independent cinema. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, little happens, and the film proposes no solution anywhere.