Monday, May 3, 2010

Not in silence, not in sound

"Love always finds a place
Not in silence, not in sound."

John Leeds and Sarah Norman play the roles of teacher and student respectively in the movie Children of a Lesser God. Sarah is deaf and cannot hear any sound. Her world is one of absolute silence, while inside her rages a storm that few can scarcely claim to understand wholly including her unconventional teacher (John). Sarah screams not knowing the racket she is raising. Sounds of silence!

From lines in the dialogue like, "If you want to talk to me talk in my language," etc. the movie ends on a concilliatary note of understanding. After each tries to discover a little of the others world. When John Leeds stays underwater to find out silence (Sarah could not share his love for classical music and asks him to describe what it is like), when the beautiful Sarah says she did not know how much she could hurt people, they try to discover a world of their own. This movie cannot be described in a review. It has to be seen and interpreted in the language of silence.
This movie above all teaches us that we can reach a higher plane of understanding if only we are ready to explore each other in our human relationships that we share in a blip in time called life. And in the process we must be prepared to be hurt a little at times by those that we love.