170 Hz

Joost van Ginkel : 2011

The unconditional love between 16-year-old Evy and 19-year-old Nick has no voice and no sound: they are both deaf-mute. The whispering young lovers communicate in sign language, with their gaze, lips and touch. Evy's upbringing has been sheltered, she attends secondary school, but feels like an outsider. Nick is a non-conformist, a rebel and a thorn in the side of Evy's father. When they sense their parents' opposition to them being together, they develop an audacious plan: they will flee and hide in a special place, where Evy will become pregnant and have a baby. They are convinced that once they have a child together nothing and nobody will be able to keep them apart. Nick takes the initiative and drives off with Evy to the hiding place he has meticulously prepared, the wreck of a former Soviet submarine in a distant part of the harbour. Within that metal casing full of sounds and tremors they cannot hear, but with their strongly developed remaining senses, can feel all the more, they concentrate on their baby project. But as Evy slowly discovers, Nick had another reason to disappear and she begins to realise that their freedom is just an illusion. 170 hertz refers to the topmost bass frequency that Nick can still hear. Sound, and its absence, is an important part of the film. Told from the point of view of the deaf characters, the sound design clearly demonstrates the impact of living without the sense of hearing. Joost van Ginkel's debut feature premiered in competition at Nederlands Film Festival 2011.