Breaking the Silence

Sun Liying is an unmarried mother. Her son Zheng Da is deaf, which is why the boy?s father has abandoned her. As from this time, she sets herself to earning a living for both. The trouble begins when the boy is at school age. She devotes her efforts to teaching the boy to communicate so that he may attend a standard school. Sun leaves the good job she has and takes on work delivering newspapers so that she can spend more time with the boy. She is convinced that Zheng Da is no different from the other children, and she believes that to wear a hearing aid is the same as wearing a pair of spectacles. The truth, however, is altogether different. The boy does not make the grade on the admittance examinations for the school, is harassed by the other children because he is deaf and is beaten up in trying to stand up for himself. His hearing aid is smashed to pieces during the fight, which only makes matters worse, for the mother will never have the money to buy him a new set. In the wake of these events, Sun loses hope and is now a woman alone and sad. Disillusioned with men, she confesses to a friend that she is in want of love, but suffering has hardened her. She will have to be strong enough to recover what she has lost, to face up to reality and teach her son to come to terms with the conditions under which they live.

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA