At The Movies: A Silence
A Silence is the latest movie from acclaimed writer/director Joachim Lafosse, who won Best Director for this film at the 2023 Rome Film Festival. Although a work of fiction, the film is inspired by true events that shocked France and Belgium. However, this is set in Metz, France.
Cocooned in a life of privilege, fifty-something Astrid Schaar (Devos) is the wife of the suave François (Auteuil), a prominent and media-savvy lawyer approaching a crucial point in his years-long, high profile case, in which he represents the parents of a number of abducted children. Day and night, reporters wait outside their gated home, hoping to snap a photo and secure François’ latest remarks. But the uneasy equilibrium of the household erodes when a figure from the family’s past returns, initiating their own search for justice.
A Silence has a slow, sometimes confusing start, and dances around the story for nearly forty minutes before revealing what is really happening. Once exposed the story is at times a hard watch, although you feel yourself always drawn to the screen.
The remarkable Emmanuelle Devos and Daniel Auteuil – two of France’s finest and most-awarded actors – are at the very top of their game in this gripping new thriller.
The final scene is left unfinished with a silent soundtrack. Without giving too much away, the ending may leave some thinking the movie wasn’t finished, but in fact, it is perhaps the only ending we could have had.
A Silence is a dark, brutal, unsettling story to say the least. To know it was based on real events only makes it more unsettling.
Movie Review by Geoff Jenke
A Silence, showing at Palace Nova Cinema’s from June 27 2024.
