Feel my Voice (Non abbiam bisogno di parole) is an Italian remake of the American CODA, which was a remake of the French La Famille Bélier. That’s a lot of remakes because this is a touching and heartwarming story in every language–including sign language.

Feel my Voice is essentially the same film as CODA. There are a few inconsequential changes. The family raised donkeys and made cheese. The music teacher was a woman.

The actors playing the deaf characters were actually deaf actors. That made it fun to watch because Italians are already very expressive and do a lot of hand waving when they talk, so it felt like the deaf characters were bigger somehow.

The deaf family was Dad (Emilio Insolera), Mom (Carola Insolera), big brother (Antonio Iorillo), and the hearing girl who loved to sing Eletta (Sarah Toscano).

At school Eletta befriended Martina (Asia Corvino). Martina thought Eletta’s brother was hot and started dating him.

Eletta was attracted to Marco (Alessandro Parigi) and joined chorus because he signed up for it.

The instructor Giuliana (Serena Rossi) recognized Eletta’s talent immediately and assigned her to sing a romantic duet with Marco. Giuliana encouraged Eletta to audition for a spot in a music school that would take her away from her home and the family who depended on her as a translator.

I really loved CODA. I called it a masterpiece. But I also love Marlee Matlin, so I was predisposed to love any movie she was in. Before I started watching Feel my Voice I thought nothing could be as good as the American version. But the Italian version is just as good. It’s excellent.

Now I need to watch the French version of this story. Apparently I love a difficult coming of age story that requires love and sacrifice on the way to living your dream. Since the French version is the original the new ones copied, it’s probably the best one of them all.

Netflix has Feel my Voice. Apple TV has CODA. And Plex has La Famille Bélier.