The ‘Sound of Metal’ starring Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci and directed and co-written by Darius Marder aims to bridge the gap between hearing audiences and the deaf community.
Riz Ahmed plays a punk-metal drummer named Ruben who loses his hearing, and with that, his livelihood. His bandmate and girlfriend, Lou (Olivia Cooke) checks the recovering heroin addict into a secluded sober house for the deaf. It’s here that he meets Joe (Paul Raci) who runs the treatment and helps Ruben navigate his new normal from the life he once lived.
Ahmed is getting Oscar buzz for his powerful performance in the movie. On November 12, IFP announced his nomination for Best Actor at the Gotham Awards. The IFP Gotham Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, January 11th. The awards show will be presented live from Cipriani Wall Street New York in a hybrid format featuring virtual interactive tables in order to follow health and safety protocols brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Knockturnal caught up with the cast as well as the director to talk about the inspiration behind the film, what they hope people learn from it and why Riz thinks this is his most challenging role to date.
Sound of Metal will be released in select theaters on Nov. 20 and will be available on Amazon Prime Video on December 4th.
