The Silence (2010)

From Netflix:

When 13-year-old Sinikka goes missing from the same spot where another girl was murdered 23 years earlier, a retired investigator teams up with a younger colleague to unravel the parallel mysteries.

According to Wikipedia, this film is based on the German crime fiction novel The Silence (German: Das Schweigen) by Jan Costin Wagner. In fact the film is in German with subtitles.

Everything about this film is incredibly well done. Not only the story, but the photography, the pace, and above all else the acting.

Lifelong sadness over the loss of a loved-one is the pervasive theme of the film. From the very beginning we witness the initial rape and murder. (Later on we witness the second murder.) Rather than being a mystery story, the film centers on how the crimes effect each of the many characters: a retired detective whose marriage failed under the stress of his desperate efforts to solve the initial crime; a young brilliant detective trying to get over the recent death of his wife; the mother of the first victim; the parents of the second victim; the smug, officious, inept present-day chief detective; and each of the two guilty parties.

Only a bit of a mystery exists: can you recognize how one of the original killers has morphed into a present-day respectable citizen?

WARNING: be prepared for sadness and irony. However, DO NOT MISS THIS SUPERB FILM!

Leave a Reply