Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Listening to the unheard

2021; Elsevier BV; Volume: 5; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s2352-4642(21)00104-8

2352-4650

Farooq Kazi, Ammara Mushtaq,

Island Studies and Pacific Affairs

Directed by Siân Heder, the film CODA (2021) is a coming-of-age story of 17-year-old Ruby (played by Emilia Jones), the only hearing member of a deaf family of multigenerational fishermen. The term CODA is an acronym for child of deaf adult. Unlike most teenagers her age, Ruby wakes up at 0300 h daily and works alongside her father (Troy Kotsur) and brother (Daniel Durant) on their fishing boat. She serves as a deckhand, interpreter, and price negotiator for the failing business. After completing her work-related obligations, Ruby races over to her high school, where she struggles academically due to exhaustion and is often bullied by her peers because of her family's disability, profession, and quirky idiosyncrasies. Ruby's only emotional outlet is singing in her school's choir under the tutelage of her eccentric music teacher (Eugenio Derbez) with whom she develops a mentor–mentee relationship. Ruby slowly begins to use music as a means of cathartic self-expression.