Yana Novikova is a 21-year-old Ukranian actress who was born deaf. She is one of the leads in "The Tribe," a near-silent film starring a cast of deaf actors who communicate only through sign and body language. There are no subtitles.

Helping her communicate during a visit to Tokyo are two translators: one interpreting her Ukrainian sign language into the official international sign language and another to translate these signs into spoken Japanese.

For Novikova, this kind of collaborative process is what makes creative projects interesting.