‘Retreat’ review: A school for the deaf may not be all it appears in atmospheric UK thriller

Dir/scr: Ted Evans. UK. 2025. 107mins

Billed as the world’s first deaf thriller, Retreat reaches beyond its core elements of a sinister cult with a mysterious newcomer to create an intriguing reflection on deaf identity. The lack of star names and some ragged storytelling might limit its commercial potential, although films from The Tribe (2014) to the Oscar-winning CODA (2021) have shown there is a growing audience for authentic deaf stories. The craft and originality deployed by deaf director Ted Evans could help it gain attention following a world premiere at Toronto and subsequent plays in Zurich and London.

An intriguing reflection on deaf identity

Ted Evans (a 2025 Screen Star Of Tomorrow) has become a champion of deaf representation on screen through the short To Know Him (2018) and the BAFTA-nominated documentary Rose Ayling-Ellis: Signs For Change (2023). Retreat is an expansion of his 2013 short of the same name, and features a deaf principal cast and the use of British Sign Language throughout (with subtitles for the hearing community).

Evans spent seven years at a deaf boarding school, and you assume that experience has informed the film’s setting of Chilmark, a vast country manor in rural England. Chilmark is a safe haven for a community of deaf people living separately from the hearing world, in which the term deaf is rejected as a label created by others. An opening montage of black and white images documents the horrors that deaf children once faced in institutions from a supposedly less enlightened time.

A brisk walk through the building sets the scene as viewers witness art classes, sports and preparations for a birthday celebration. Eva (Anne Zander) arrives at Chilmark from Berlin, intent on starting a fresh life and finding a home. She is welcomed by the community’s leader Mia, played by Sophie Stone with a smug self-righteousness that suggests this whole enterprise is too good to be true.

Eva takes a shine to earnest, square-jawed Matt (James Boyle), who has lived at Chilmark his entire adult life. She embarks on Mia’s programme ’The Way’, featuring group therapy sessions which seem to require the wearing of sleeveless purple leisure wear. This is more cult than community, with a sinister Suspiria vibe to the proceedings. As Eva flourishes at Chilmark, Matt starts to unravel – the film places its biggest focus on their contrasting fortunes as Eva grows more certain of her deaf identity while Matt becomes more disillusioned.

Evans does a good job of building a sense of mystery around events at Chilmark. Is the controlling Mia more lethal than her sweet smile might suggest? Is Eva some undercover infiltrator? How is the entire operation financed? The reality is less obvious than you initially suspect.

Evans also makes effective use of a soundscape in which noise and silence carry equal weight. A test alarm in the home is signalled with flashing lights and confusing shadows; Matt’s anxious perspective dominates when he is faced with conversations he cannot hear. Adam Janota Bzowski’s impressive score adds considerably to the atmosphere with its use of jangling chords, cello and what sounds like repetitive stomping feet and clapping hands. The use of John Lennon’s 1970 track Mama over the closing credits does, however, feel a little too on the nose.

Retreat starts to falter when the thriller components become more prominent. The introduction of guns, the desire for flight and a growing sense of melodrama mark a move towards the more conventional in a film that leaves more questions than answers. Despite those reservations, it remains an ambitious and largely successful fusion of a thriller and a journey of self-discovery.