Some things require experience. If you can hear, it is difficult if not impossible to conceive of what life must be like for a deaf person. Children of a Lesser God, among other things, gives a better sense of that than I would have thought possible. The story is of the complex relationship that develops between a speech teacher at a school for deaf persons and a deaf janitor whose pain and resentment of a troubled past stifle her aspirations to do anything more.

The story is profound, insightful, and something I'd not quite seen before in a movie. Most movies scarcely scratch the surface of their characters and interrelationships, but Children of a Lesser God dives in so deeply and yet with such confidence and competency that it looks easy.

The film is about deafness, yes, but it's much broader than that. The themes within it apply across the board; as such, it is almost impossible not to relate to it in some meaningful way.