An award-winning French tale about a teenage girl and her deaf parents is frothy but moving

Last December, Rebecca Atkinson wrote in the Guardian of a boycott of La Famille Bélier in protest at its casting of “hearing actors to play the roles of deaf characters, the result of which is an embarrassing and crass interpretation of deaf culture and sign language”. In the wake of Miroslav Slaboshpitsky’s grim but authentic The Tribe, such a response is understandable, although Eric Lartigau’s frothy comedy about the teenage daughter of deaf parents finding her singing voice has proved a feelgood hit in France, with Louane Emera picking up a César for most promising actress. As Paula, Emera is indeed a winning presence, and it would take a hard heart not to be moved by her rendition of Michel Sardou’s Je Vole, or to appreciate Lartigau’s attempts to convey...