{"id":27486,"date":"2023-07-24T08:15:45","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T06:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/?p=27486"},"modified":"2023-07-25T22:08:02","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T20:08:02","slug":"a-deaf-boys-quest-to-find-his-voice-in-a-hearing-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/a-deaf-boys-quest-to-find-his-voice-in-a-hearing-world\/","title":{"rendered":"A Deaf Boy\u2019s Quest to Find His Voice in a Hearing World"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><em>Name Me Lawand<\/em> is written, produced and directed by Edward Lovelace. A\u00a0Pulse Films production with support from BFI Doc Society Fund (awarding National Lottery funding) and Electric Shadow Company.\u00a0In UK cinemas from July 2023, on BFI Player August 21st. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pulsefilms.com\/work\/item\/name-me-lawand\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">More<\/a> screening info.)<\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><b>Nazli Tarzi<\/b><\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Edward Lovelace\u2019s latest feature documentary, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Name Me Lawand<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is a coming-of-age account of a deaf Kurdish Iraqi boy and his experience learning British Sign Language (BSL) in the English city of Derby in the East Midlands. The immersive film enables the viewer to take in the world through Lawand\u2019s gaze, while also conveying salient messages about the rights of the deaf community and (un)belonging.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lawand Hamad Amin was born into a hearing family in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), where provisions for deaf children are near non-existent, educational opportunities have been eroded by conflict and occupation, and trauma is as common as a winter\u2019s cold. His family made its way to the UK in 2016, when Lawand was five years old. In the film, we first meet Lawand as a 12-year-old boy in Derby.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"New trailer for Name Me Lawand - in UK\/Ireland cinemas 7 July 2023 | BFI\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-GqcLq3_i8E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like his brothers and cousins, Lawand is identifiably Kurdish, enjoying the same food and cultural rituals. But in the absence of a common language, there appears to be a divide between them, as well as between him and the speaking world. Rawa, Lawand\u2019s older brother, strongest advocate, and best friend, is sensitive to the boy\u2019s sense of estrangement; \u201cborn on the wrong planet\u201d is Rawa\u2019s way of making sense of it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lawand\u2019s capacity to use phonetic expression is severely limited, but not non-existent. This fuels hope among his immediate family that the trickle of words he is able to muster (albeit with great difficulty) will become a flood. That does not happen and, eventually, the family accepts that his trouble with speech is not a reflection of a cognitive shortcoming, but rather is informed by his profound deafness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The film\u2019s twin themes \u2014 a deaf boy\u2019s journey to articulating himself in a hearing society, and the humanitarian crisis on the fringes of Europe\u2014move along separate tracks. They occasionally intersect, but each has its own distinctive tone. Scenes that recall moments of the family\u2019s journey out of Iraq are abstracted like a bad dream slipping away, in contrast to scenes of the family\u2019s current suburban life in Derby, which are upbeat, colorful, and told through slow and languorous depictions, like a pleasant daydream.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a characteristic of both conservative and war-weary societies <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Iraq is both <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that human differences, in any shape or form, are either egregiously misunderstood or labeled an aberration. Lawand knows this instinctually from experience, having spent part of his childhood in Iraq. Derby, on the other hand, injects color into his monochrome world and serves as restitution for everything he grew up without. At Derby\u2019s Royal School for the Deaf, Lawand is introduced to Sophie, a deaf activist and artist who will be his teacher. Like Lawand, she first learned sign language as a teenager \u2014 much later than is recommended by audiologists. With Sophie\u2019s help, Lawand discovers himself and establishes his place in an inclusive and educationally progressive setting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Midway through the film, however, Lawand and family receive earth-shattering news from the Home Office: they are to be deported. This bombshell galvanizes the teaching staff at Lawand\u2019s school as well as members of the local community, who make every effort to fight for the family\u2019s right to stay. Through this plot twist, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the film\u2019s narrative swerves in a new direction, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">heightening our awareness of the double bind Lawand faces as a child who straddles underrepresented communities \u2014 the deaf on the one hand, and refugees on the other. Audiences can almost feel anxiety simmering in Lawand\u2019s two worlds, at home and at school, as his fate hangs in the balance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In many ways, the film is driven by the close bond between teacher and pupil, and in particular the empathy that Sophie radiates. This is best captured by Lovelace in the scene where Lawand is introduced to Visual Vernacular<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (non-verbal storytelling) by Sophie through her reenactment of the famous bullet-dodging scene in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Matrix<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which Lawand playfully mimics in acknowledgment. \u201cSee, I can do it,\u201d he then tells her via han<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> signs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fly-on-the-wall moments like these \u2014 of which there are plenty \u2014 offer more than just insight into Lawand\u2019s life. The viewer is confronted with rarely contemplated questions: What is language? How does it function, and is it necessarily an auditory medium? As someone whose younger sibling was mute until the age of six, I\u2019m reminded of my own experience as a young caregiver, and also of the view that \u201chuman bodies are words,\u201d as stated memorably by American poet Walt Whitman.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_27522\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27522\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pulsefilms.com\/work\/item\/name-me-lawand\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-27522\" src=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/name-me-lawand-poster-courtesy-bfi.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"744\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/name-me-lawand-poster-courtesy-bfi.jpg 500w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/name-me-lawand-poster-courtesy-bfi-202x300.jpg 202w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-27522\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Name Me Lawand<\/em> poster courtesy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bfi.org.uk\/bfi-film-releases\/name-me-lawand\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">British Film Institue<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At another point in the film, Sophie asks Lawand if he would prefer to communicate through his voice, which his family is keen for him to utilize, or through BSL. Lawand unhesitatingly answers, \u201cBSL,\u201d which becomes his primary means of communication. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0L<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ike a racehorse out of the starting gate, he takes off an<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> never looks back.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As recognition of his school\u2019s dedicated support for Lawand grows inside the Amin household, his parents decide to overcome their initial reluctance and learn BSL themselves. Their learning curve is much steeper than that of Lawand, whose classroom\u00a0 environment is more conducive to the task. For years, Lawand had no choice but to conform to those around him, but in Derby the tables are turned. His family must now adjust to his choices in search of the common ground promised by BSL.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beyan Taher, one of the film\u2019s producers (and, I should disclose, a friend of mine), <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was keen to include in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Name Me Lawand<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Iraq-filmed archival material that she shot herself. Scenes include the mountainscapes of northern Iraq, and Rawa and Lawand\u2019s primary school in Chwarqurna, which is located in the governorate of Sulaymaniyah. This gives the film an air of hyper-poetic realism. A poetic texture is also achieved by Lovelace\u2019s inclusion of introspective commentary from Lawand\u2019s family members as they reflect on their changing attitudes towards Lawand\u2019s learning needs. Their choice of words in Kurdish and their cadence feel almost lyrical, and in my opinion as an Iraqi, subtly mirror poetic expressions in Iraq.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The film\u2019s most cherishable moments, however, are those that remind the viewer that love is not contingent on spoken language. Even in its absence, bonds can be cultivated. The exclusion that characterized Lawand\u2019s earlier years as the only non-speaking member of his family may well resonate with children from multilingual households where not everyone speaks a common dialect or even language.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lovelace\u2019s feel-good, buoyant film makes for great viewing, but owing to the limited snapshot it offers into Lawand\u2019s new life, the viewer is left with unanswered questions about the way that his family is affected by their dislocation from Iraq. Rawa in particular carries with him a profound nostalgia for his native country. For me, the film felt like the first episode of a series: I yearned to learn more about the personal lives of other family members, the challenges that Lawand\u2019s impairment poses for them, and I wanted to follow Lawand\u2019s progression at school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though not for the weak-hearted, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Name Me Lawand<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a poignant portrait of self-discovery and growth. Through a dreamlike aesthetic, it captures the world from the vantage point of a deaf child. The film is also a powerful reminder that asylum policies must account for children with special needs. Lovelace prompts us to think of the UK\u2019s discriminatory immigration policies and the weaponization of the law against social groups for whom home is, to borrow the words of poet Warsan Shire, \u201cthe mouth of the shark.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Edward Lovelace&#8217;s new documentary, a refugee&#8217;s handicap becomes a source of inspiration in the struggle for survival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":395,"featured_media":27523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,51],"tags":[2883,2882,2888,2885,885,2886,2519,2890,2884],"coauthors":[2721],"class_list":["post-27486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-review","category-tmr-weekly","tag-british-sign-language-bsl","tag-deaf","tag-derby","tag-humanitarian-refugee-crisis","tag-iraq","tag-kurdish-region-of-iraq","tag-language","tag-special-needs-children","tag-visual-vernacular","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.8 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Deaf Boy\u2019s Quest to Find His Voice in a Hearing World - The Markaz Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" 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