12 minutes. One impossible choice. No sound, no escape, no easy answers.
Tom, a deaf teen, has to get out of his hearing "vacuum" bubble because of the war. He is standing before a decision that will impact the rest of his life.
Sound
Strategic use of deaf perspective creates unbearable tension.
Acting
Yahav Gershon's eyes do what dialogue cannot.
Direction
Azulay weaponizes runtime—every second counts.
Director
Ido Azulay
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Israeli student films often use mandatory military service as narrative pressure cooker—this inverts it by excluding the protagonist from that communal trauma through disability, then forcing him toward it anyway.
The silent opening 90 seconds with only Tom's breathing and ambient vibration has been compared to A Quiet Place's sound design, though Vacuum premiered at festivals first.
IL
