All it took was watching the trailer for Name Me Lawand to sell me on the film. It promises an intriguing, emotive journey (that The Guardian calls “emphatic and inspiring”) sure to make you cry and smile. How could I not want to be a part of that? As such, I’m ecstatic that composer Tom Hodge chose The Film Scorer to premiere a track from his score, “Take Your Cochlear Implant Off”, ahead of the score’s full release on July 7th.
This is very much a cue in two parts. At first, it’s slow to begin, with ethereal tendrils that creep up on you in an inconspicuous crescendo. “I wish I could float”, Lawand tells us. Tom took these words “very much as inspiration for the first half[, trying] to capture a sense of weightlessness and the magic of his imagination whilst supporting the beautiful intimate scene where his brother is learning to sign and they are communicating together. The spectral processing somehow creates a certain timelessness also.”
Eventually those tendrils grab you, lifting you up in a beautiful triumph. This half is what Tom considers “more classic narrative scoring and a sense of purpose, almost urgency, with piano and percussive elements driving us into the ’Survivor’ section.” Rounding out the sound is some guitar work from Ciaran Morahan, “using his ‘famous’ drumstick on the strings to create an ambient tremolo wash!” As the cue continues, “[t]he action pushes forward as Lawand and Sophie head independently to school where she suggests he ‘take [his] cochlear implant off’ – another step in his extraordinary communicative and emotional growth.”
Together, these two halves create a wonderful standalone micro-narrative, a gentle soundscape growing into something even more enveloping and powerful; a character arc in just over two minutes. Listen to the full cue below and keep scrolling for a more in-depth look into the score and film, the tracklist, and some additional information.
When talking broadly about the score, Tom said “Ed has a unique approach – the film was described the other day as a rapturous/euphoric portrait and I think that also sums up well the role the music needed to play: much less about commentary and rather more about subjectivity and naïvety, detailing the wonder of Lawand’s journey (both literally and metaphorically) and his feelings about it.”
If you want to know a little more about Tom or his music, we actually spoke early in 2021 about his score for the 5x BAFTA nominated and 2x Golden Globe nominated (winning one of the latter) The Mauritanian, and he went in-depth into his score for last year’s The Ipcress File when I premiered a track from it last year.
Tom’s score releases on July 7th, and you can find it on Tom’s Spotify, iTunes, and Apple Music, among other places (note that the score won’t show up until the 7th). Name Me Lawand hits theaters in the UK and Ireland on July 7th, including BFI screenings and a special Q&A with writer-director Edward Lovelace.
More About Name Me Lawand
“Lawand is a young Kurdish boy, deaf since birth. At five years old his future in Iraq looks destined to be limited and lonely. In desperate search of a better life in a world where he can communicate, his family decide to leave their home. After a treacherous journey and a year in a refugee camp, the help of a deaf volunteer brings them to Derby where Lawand joins the Royal School for the Deaf. As he grows older, the film follows his dramatic progress learning British Sign Language, revealing a bright, charismatic and inquisitive boy, who discovers friendship and a new way to express himself. But just as Lawand is joyfully finding his place in the world, the family face deportation from the UK.
Employing a striking lyrical and observational visual style, writer-director Edward Lovelace spent four years filming Lawand, learning British Sign Language himself. In this moving and inspiring portrait, we follow Lawand’s evolution from extreme isolation to becoming able to be his true self. This is a story about the strength that language gives us, whatever form it takes, and of the power of friendship and community.
Name Me Lawand is a Pulse Films production with support from BFI Doc Society Fund (awarding National Lottery funding) and Electric Shadow Company.”
Tracklist for Name Me Lawand
- Home
- Scared
- All We Could Do Was Hope
- Everyone This Is Lawand
- You Lived In Another Place
- Take Your Cochlear Implant Off
- Somewhere Wrong
- I Wish We Could Stay Here Forever
- Then Everything Changed
- What Does Language Mean To Me
- No Pressure
- The Home Office Wanted Proof
- Maybe I’m Not Meant To Be Here
- Name Me Lawand
- Who Is Lawand
- This Was Our Journey
- Why Is Rawa Crying
- I Used To Think I Was The Only One
- Passport
