The first sound that comes from the large villa is the monotonous singsong of the nuns. It's only six o'clock in the morning and its low vibration is already expanding and filling the old rooms with high ceilings. The children, young guests, are sleeping, but they are not disturbed. Nor they are cradled, their sleep is "noise-proof". Their small hearing aids are turned off lined up in the wooden box. Each of them has a name: Ivan, Loriana, Carola... Santa Croce is an ancient mansion that austerely rises in the countryside near Modena in Italy. The silence of the dawn is interruped only by the long refrain of the prayers of the nuns that live in it. And, in September, when the school open, even Santa Croce trasforms itself in a teaching place, where about 150 kids from 3 to 10 years old are welcome. Twenty of them are deafs. They come in Santa Croce without sound, without formed words. For breaking the silence and finding the key for communicate with the external world they have to train really hard, but above all they have to spend long time far from their mums and dads. The nuns know that only overcoming the homesickness and with the growing of the confidence in that new family there will be the conditions for their little guests to collaborate and learning. One entire year in an ancient countryside school, drived by the quiet silence and talkative hands. One year for coming down at the kids time.

Stefano Cattini was born in 1966 in Carpi (near Modena, Italy), where he still lives and works as a filmmaker. After some years spent in a reportage studio as photographer assistant, he started to study audiovisual language. He shot his first short documentary in 2004 and received international attention with 'Ivan and Loriana', short film that was the basis of 'DeakKidsLand', his first feature. In 2010 he received the David di Donatello Award nomination for best Italian documentary and was invited to join the European Film Academy.