AllMovie

An informative and emotionally involving portrait of an important subculture, Sound and Fury allows us a glimpse inside the world of the deaf community, while dealing with a controversial operation that some people in that community are resisting. Cochlear ear implants have allowed many deaf people to hear and learn to speak, but many in the deaf community who are happy with its supportive and nurturing atmosphere see the operation as a threat. The film focuses on the Artinian brothers -- Peter is deaf, Chris is not -- who are faced with the same decision over one of their children. Peter is married to Nita, a deaf woman, and the oldest of their three deaf children, five-year-old Heather, decides she wants the operation. Her parents are torn, wanting to accede to Heather's wishes but afraid of losing her to the land of the hearing. Chris and his hearing wife, Mari, also have three children, but only one-an infant twin-can't hear. They (and Peter and Chris's hearing parents) are all for the operation, and the film charts the progress of the debates among the family and their final decisions on the operation. Sound and Fury was screened in competition at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival.