Deaf (Sorda) (2025) by Eva Libertad: When Silence Speaks Motherhood’s Truth

Short Summary – Silence Gives Birth to Both Joy and Fear

Ángela, a deaf potter in rural Spain, is expecting a child with her hearing partner, Héctor. As she prepares for motherhood, she must confront her anxieties about nurturing a baby in a world not built for her—or her child. In the wake of giving birth, stresses intensify, and Ángela faces the emotional and communication barriers that redefine her identity in surprising ways.

Link IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26923797/

Link Review: https://journeyintocinema.com/deaf-review/

About movie: https://latidofilms.com/films/deaf/

Link to watch: https://www.justwatch.com/es/pelicula/sorda (Spain)

Detailed Summary – Love, Birth, and the Divide of Worlds

• Ángela and Héctor share tender moments naming baby options, buoyed by hope and mutual understanding within their deaf-hearing dynamic.

• Pregnancy introduces fears—Ángela worries she may not bond with a hearing child or be misunderstood by her own family, while Héctor tries to bridge gaps.

• The childbirth sequence unfolds as a visceral crisis: medical staff speak without awareness of Ángela’s deafness, prompting her to rip a doctor’s mask to lip-read—an emotionally raw moment of assertion and survival.

• Post-birth, Ángela grapples with motherhood’s dissonance: she cannot hear her daughter, finds herself alienated in caregiving rituals, and struggles within a social world that expects conformity.

• The film builds on Libertad’s 2021 short, expanding its emotional depth and focusing on what it means to raise a child across the hearing-deaf divide.

Director’s Vision – A Sign-Language Birth of New Cinema

• Eva Libertad shapes Deaf from a Goya-nominated short into her feature debut, centering a deaf actress—her own sister—on screen. The project arises from intimate conversations about motherhood and is grounded in authentic, lived experience.

• The film premiered in the Panorama section at the Berlin Film Festival, winning both the Audience Award and the CICAE Art Cinema Award. It also captured Spain’s Golden Biznaga for Best Film and other top honors in Málaga.

• Libertad filmed in Murcia, her home region, infusing the film with cultural specificity; she credits local film policies for enabling its production.

Themes – Motherhood Between Two Worlds

• Silence as Identity: Ángela’s deafness isn't a barrier—it's her world. Her identity and communication evolve as she becomes a mother to a child who may be hearing.

• Belonging and Otherness: The film navigates Ángela’s longing for connection in familial and medical spaces that don't accommodate her experience.

• Redefining Bonds Through Language: The tension between sign language, spoken Spanish, and lip reading becomes a narrative device reflecting emotional and cultural distance.

Key Success Factors – Raw, Silent Power

• Miriam Garlo’s deeply authentic performance anchors the film, offering a rare and powerful insight into deaf motherhood.

• The childbirth scene strikes critics as "one of the most intense ever on film," visceral and emotionally razor-sharp.

• Libertad’s direction combines restraint and empathy, revealing emotional truth through silence rather than exposition.

Awards & Nominations – A Festival Force of Silent Truth

Deaf premiered at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival’s Panorama section, winning the Audience Award and CICAE Art Cinema Award. In Málaga, it swept major honors, including Golden Biznaga for Best Spanish Film, as well as performance awards and the audience prize.

Critics Reception – A Silent Storm in a Whispered Frame

• Cineuropa: Describes the film as an emotionally complex portrait of how a deaf woman’s world shifts with motherhood, focusing on perception rather than sound.

• ScreenDaily: Hails it as a “compassionate, sensitive debut” that avoids patronization, offering authenticity and emotional resonance.

• Rotten Tomatoes (Spanish critics): Rated 4/5 for its sensory realism, bold character complexity, and heart—"truthful, meticulous, sensorial."Summary: Critics laud Deaf for its emotional honesty, radical empathy, and the powerful subtlety of storytelling beyond sound.

Reviews – Viewers Touched by Quiet Universality

• IMDb user reviews: One calls it a “masterpiece... the final part is a truly unique experience.” Another praises its authentic rendering of a deaf-hearing relationship and the emotional nuance of early parenthood.Overall Summary: Both audiences and critics resonate with the film’s ability to render motherhood as both universal and deeply conditioned by difference.

Why to Recommend Movie – When Silence Speaks Universally

• Offers a rare, intimate portrayal of deaf motherhood—rooted in lived experience and conveyed with clarity beyond language.

• Breaks new ground as Spain’s first feature film starring a deaf actress in sign language, expanding representation meaningfully.

• Emotionally layered without manipulation—using silence to evoke feeling, not just to signal suspense or drama.

• A festival standout with universal themes—identity, connection, belonging—crafted in restraint, not spectacle.

Movie Trend – Quiet Stories, Strong Voices

Embodies a growing movement in inclusive cinema spotlighting disability not as metaphor but as lived reality, challenging mainstream narratives with authenticity.

Social Trend – Visibility as Empowerment

Deaf exemplifies contemporary cultural shifts toward representation, accessibility, and visibility for disabled identities, inviting audiences to see difference as normal, not exceptional.

Final Verdict – A Whisper That Echoes

Deaf is an act of cinematic empathy—a delicate, insistent film that invites us into a world built for hearing, yet lived in silence. Eva Libertad and Miriam Garlo craft a narrative where motherhood, identity, and perception collide—reminding us that silence can be the most eloquent space of all.