“I will reach that goal and make it - I am not going to give up.”
Following a series of shorts, director Manuel Acuña has launched his debut documentary feature. Filmed over seven years, he has got to know the protagonists personally and watched them grow and change as they meet, only to be separated again and again. As a documentary filmmaker, he enters their world revealing their very special situation and their challenges.
Manuel Acuña
The cinematography is very distinctive with a cinema verité feel with long hand-held sequences and big close ups. This adds a feeling of intimacy between the two women, also with the recurring theme of water, be in the sea, or more significantly, by the vast aquarium, where they seem to be most at ease with one another.
There is an hypnotic effect with the bioluminescent jelly fish and multi-coloured aquatic species as they gently weave their way around the vast fish tank, emblematic also, of the vast distances they must cross to be together for good. The women caress the glass wall of the aquarium as if it were a barrier to break down.
Rosa (Rosa María Casillas madrigal) is from Jalisco. She is studying law at the University of Guadalajara hoping to become the first deaf lawyer in Mexico. Sai (Saira Yunuen Medina Soria) born in California of immigrant parents, is struggling to establish her gender identity. She has to take her niece, no more than a child, as an interpreter when she goes to see a doctor about removing her breasts in the process to become the man she wishes to be.
Sai and Rosa share a moment at the seaside
The Mexican scenes of Rosa were shot by Manuel Acuña himself, while many of the scenes of Sai are selfie videos made by her, to send to Rosa, largely filmed on cell phones. They support each other as they both fight for their objectives outside, Rosa for equality and the wish to succeed as a lawyer and for Sai, for her identity and her need to transition and find a way to get her family to accept her as she is.
As they succeed in achieving their aims, they also lose each other. Their warm supportive relationship helped them cross the hard barriers to achieve these objectives, without each other, maybe it would have been so much harder.
The sound of the film is very potent, as the women get closer to embrace, their hearing aids generate feedback that almost repels them… in the background thunderstorms rumble… and we get the feel of the inner sounds a deaf person has to deal with. The sounds of their own bodies.
There is little big-time drama in this film but Acuña follows their relationship with sympathy and thoughtfulness, as it develops with their individual challenges and hopes.
THE SILENCE OF MY HANDS (2024)
The UK premier will be screened at the 2025 BFI Flare LGBTQIA+ Film Festival on March 24th 2025
Cast: Rosa Maria Casillas Madrigal and Sai Yunuen Medina Soria
Director: Manuel Acuña /Writers: Manuela Acuña and Malena Céspedes Guarini / Producer:Monica Velasco /DOP: David Mancillas Villaseñor / Manuel Acuña / Editor : Humberto Flores Jáuregui / Guion de montaje: Lena Guarini / Sound designer: Rubí J Pérez / Mixer: Mario Martinez Cobos / Music: AnAn
Production companies: Contratiempo Cine and Filma Jalisco.
