Republic of the Deaf

The action of “Republic of the Deaf” unfolds during a period of political turmoil in an occupied territory. Although the place and time are not precisely specified, it seems that in those terrible events we learn about our era and our country.

The stunning poetic parable, which resembles a dramatic work in form, opens with the scene of the murder of the deaf boy Peti by the occupiers. The shot that spurs the inhabitants to protest is the last sound they hear. The city falls silent, and in this silence, the language of gestures becomes the language of their silent resistance.

The book tells the stories of the private lives of townspeople in the face of public violence: a newlywed couple, Sonia and Alfonso, who are expecting a child; the brave Mamulya Gali, who starts a riot in her puppet theater; Gali's puppeteers, who secretly teach the townspeople sign language during the day, and at night lure the soldiers one by one and kill them behind the theater curtain.

At once a love story, an elegy, and a political pamphlet, “Republic of the Deaf” rings as a warning and questions our collective silence in the face of cruelty and violence.

"The deaf do not believe in silence," writes Ilya Kaminsky. "Silence was invented by those who can hear."