Silent Light-Movie Review 04/22/2011
Posted by Films to consider in Cannes Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, Drama, Emotional Drama, German dialect (Plautdietsch) language film, Independent Spirit Awards, Movies.trackback
Silent Light (Low German) 2007
Stellet licht
Among other awards and nominations:
Winner, Jury Prize (Reydagas); nominated Palme d’Or (Reydagas), Cannes Film Festival
Winner, Best Film, Gold Hugo Award, Chicago Film Festival
Winner, FRIPESCI Prize, Best Latin American Film, Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival
Nominated, Best Foreign Film, Independent Spirit Awards
Directed by Carlos Reydagas
Starring Cornelio Wall, Maria Pankratz, and Miriam Toews
A mesmerizing film about a Mennonite couple who lives in a community in Northern Mexico. Johann (Wall) and Esther (Toews) have a large family and a quiet farm life. When Johann falls in love with another woman, Esther tries to live with his ongoing infidelity, but it breaks her heart.
This is a quiet story about a man’s struggle to live with himself when he falls short of his own beliefs. The director used locals, some of whom don’t even speak the same language he does; the film’s dialogue is in Plautdietsch, a variety of Low German that is the language spoken by the Russian Mennonites. The cast’s performances are very natural and real.
The incredible cinematography adds to even the most ordinary of scenes, such as driving down a road. The opening sequence was so beautifully filmed that I could have watched that for an hour.
136 min. Not rated. Sexual content and adult themes.
FILMS TO CONSIDER 
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