more modest offerings. among them, coda, which sounds the child of deaf adults, as noah gittell reports. the main character in coda, ruby, is the only hearing person in an otherwise deaf family. in other ways she's like every other teenager caught between two worlds — her childhood life with her parents and the future she dreams. ruby wants to study singing at a prestigious arts university. but she also serves as her family's unofficial translator and a key employee of their struggling fishing business. the film effectively blends the emotions of a coming—of—age drama with an authentic portrayal of deaf culture. director sian heder, a hearing person, worked hard to get it right.