Subscribe to watch - 14-day free trial, then £6.99 a month
Name Me Lawand
Edward Lovelace explores the power of communication and community with this rapturous portrait of a young deaf Kurdish boy.
Director: Edward Lovelace
Overview
This powerful documentary highlights the importance of community and the transformative effect of finding your voice. Convinced of the potential of their deaf son, a Kurdish family leave Iraq and finally arrive in the UK, where Lawand joins the Royal School for the Deaf Derby. Empowered with British Sign Language, he reveals himself as a witty and popular student. Meanwhile, his family navigate a new common language and have to fight to remain in the community that has embraced them.
Director Edward Lovelace (who made The Possibilities Are Endless with co-director James Hall) spent four years alongside Lawand and his family, whilst learning BSL to produce this inspiring portrait.
Upsetting scenes, references to discrimination
Related
Architecton Architecton
Documentary 2024 98 mins Director: Viktor Kossakovsky
Victor Kossakovsky’s film essay looks at the way we have constructed our built world through a series of breathtaking sequences.
Hotel Monterey Hotel Monterey
Documentary 1973 63 mins Silent Director: Chantal Akerman
A hypnotic tour of a New York hotel that proves that nighttime is Akerman time.
Là-bas Là-bas
Documentary 2006 79 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s introspective apartment-bound reflection on isolation and confinement.
Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton
Documentary 2003 52 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
A celebration of Akerman’s longtime collaborator, cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, showing her artistry as she plays and discusses her life in music.
De l’autre côté De l’autre côté
Documentary 2002 99 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Made over 20 years ago, this exploration of the lives of Mexican migrants and the cruelties of borders makes for equally urgent viewing today.
Sud Sud
Documentary 1999 71 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
A study of the troubled, racist history of the American South and its legacy.
Bound Bound
Gangster 1996 109 mins Director: Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski
A seductive neo-noir and cult classic centring on lesbian desire in dangerous circumstances.
High Life High Life
Science Fiction 2019 113 mins Director: Claire Denis
The messiness of sex, the mysteries of birth and the moving spectacle of devoted parenting in the face of impending oblivion create a potent atmosphere in Claire Denis’ English-language debut.
Pornomelancholia Pornomelancholia
Drama 2022 94 mins Director: Manuel Abramovich
Soulful docufiction featuring real-life porn actor Lalo Santos.
God's Own Country God's Own Country
Drama 2017 105 mins Director: Francis Lee
A troubled young sheep farmer falls for a hired hand in this stunning debut from Francis Lee.
Amores perros Amores perros
Drama 2000 148 mins Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu's (Birdman, The Revenant) gripping debut feature is a savagely brilliant triptych around the theme of animalistic desires.
Drugstore Cowboy Drugstore Cowboy
Drama 1989 101 mins Director: Gus Van Sant
Matt Dillon and his not-so-merry band of junkies rob pharmacies and cheat death.