Retreat

Monday, September 8: Live captioning will be provided for the live onstage components of this screening.

Tuesday, September 9: An ASL interpreter will be present for the live onstage components of this screening.

Sunday, September 14: This film will be presented with open captions, but please note, ASL interpretation will not be available for the live onstage elements of the screening.

Original, propulsive, and genuinely disquieting, Ted Evans’ feature debut, billed as the world’s first Deaf thriller, boldly upends expectations. When Eva (Anne Zander), a young woman from Berlin, arrives at an isolated retreat for Deaf people in the English countryside, she hopes to find belonging, support, and connection. Set in a sprawling manor house and run by the enigmatic Mia, the retreat prides itself on preparing its residents for the harsh realities of a hearing world. But Mia’s methods — part boot camp, part spiritual doctrine — quickly raise questions. What exactly is being prepared for? And why does no one ever seem to leave?

Anchored by a riveting performance from Sophie Stone as Mia, Retreat unfolds as an immersive, slow-burn psychological drama, always hinting that something isn’t quite right. As Eva grows close to Matt (James Joseph Boyle), a man who has spent his entire life within the compound, the lines between care, control, and coercion begin to blur. As the story deepens, writer-director Evans poses some big questions about consent while never losing sight of the specific realities of his characters.

Evans — who, like his principal cast, is Deaf — brings insight and lived experience to this chilling story, building tension through silence, gesture, and the emotional weight of withheld information. Made using British Sign Language, the profound and empathetic Retreat is a rare, fully immersive film that centres Deaf subjectivity on its own terms.

JASON RYLE