Too many fans seem to be blown away

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Talking to a family friend over the weekend,I found out that he had caught the ending of a wonderful sounding Neo-Noir from Germany on BBC4.Taking a look on BBC iPlayer,I was pleased to find that the title would be kept on for a week,which led to me getting ready to find out how silent things could be.The plot:1986:Driving round, Peer Sommer and Timo Friedrich spot 11 year old Pia riding her bike home.Whilst Friedrich sits in the car,Sommer gets out to rape and kill her.After witnessing the act,Friedrich disappears from Sommer's life,as police officer Krischan Mittich tries (and fails) to find much evidence over who the murderer might be.23 Years later:Shortly before the anniversary of Pia's death,missing 13 year old Sinikka Weghamm's bike is found at the spot where Pia was killed. Grieving over the death of his wife,police officer David Jahn is given the task of finding missing Sinikka Weghamm.During his investigation into where Weghamm is,Jahn begins to break the silences on a similar unsolved missing person/murder case that took place 23 years ago.View on the film:Making his (feature) film debut,writer/director Baran bo Odar reveals that the best way to make an entrance is not with a bang,but a sinister,silent scream.Opening up Pia's murder in flashbacks,Odar and cinematographer Nikolaus Summerer soak the movie in an evil under the sun Neo-Noir atmosphere,where the sun-kissed fields and neatly cut parks are a cover for the foreboding "ghosts" and blood covered hands which have not faded over the passage of time.Placing everything on a knife edge, Odar digs into a rich Neo-Noir mood by pulling Pas de Deux great score back,and treading on the stench of death on Friedrich,by brilliantly lingering on Friedrich pass a comfortable point,and also subtly placing a wide "gap" between Friedrich and everyone he meets. Taken from the pages of Jan Costin Wagner's novel,the screenplay by Odar makes sure to not approach the killers in an apologetic manner,with Odar instead making sure that Friedrich's lingering memories of death are always bubbling just under the surface.Suspecting a link between the two murders, Odar makes Jahn's search for the links one that brings up no easy answers,from former lead cop Mittich putting a brick wall up against any of Jahn's ideas,to Odar bringing up the silences to deliver a devastating Neo-Noir final note,as Jahn discovers that his fellow cops are more interested in putting a false bow of hope on the Neo- Noir doubts,and not breaking the deadly silence.

To start off, I have absolutely no knowledge of German cinema, however, The Silence is a film that made me want to get into German cinema. It is THAT good. The film follows the lives of people connected to a serial killer who rapes and murders young women. After fifteen years without a trace, the killer begins to kill again. As the film progresses, we follow the family of the victim, the police investigating and the killer himself. With every twist and turn this film goes on, it makes for a thoroughly enjoyable and emotionally taxing watch that you're bound to be talking about after the end credits roll. The film stars German actors who, besides a couple bouts of poor subtitle dialog, do an amazing job capturing the authenticity that goes into situations like this. Many films have been touching base on pedophilia and the abduction of children in the past. Such films as In Her Skin and Prisoners come to mind but The Silence is a film that does it in such a way that it gives humanity to all of its characters, even the killer. It's very rare that you're able to actually reason with a character so dark and vile, it truly makes you feel disgusted especially during some of the darker scenes such as a rape scene in the beginning of the film. What this film does beautifully is takes the darkest and most evil event that could happen in someone's life and captures it on screen but it doesn't glorify it. It shows how it truly is, an act of evil done by a despicable man, we don't see an up, close and personal sequence of the rape, we see it through tall grass. Its scenes like this that capture the essence of this film. Its dark, brutal and depressing but it is still a great film nonetheless that keeps you guessing until the very end. I highly recommend it.

The film is nominally a police 'thriller' or procedural, focussing on a 'missing' 13 year old child - a crime that is a replica of a similar crime from 23 years previously. Cue a detective who failed to solve the original murder obsessing, the mother having to replay the previous crime, the modern parents falling apart, and a detective who cannot get over his wife's premature death. So much, so far paralleling 'The Killing' and other Scando-noir. But then you see the 23 year old crime played out and who are the perpetrators - cue up to date reactions to this new possible murder. And this is where the crime story becomes an allegory for attitudes to past demeanours - eg Nazi war crimes. The bureaucrat who just wants to shut down the case and not deal with messy complications; the older detective whose life is ruined; and the two perps (one who killed, and one who watched but did not tell) and how they face the renewed focus on the earlier crime. there are lots of references to child pornography which stands as the symbol of unspeakable actions to other helpless human beings! All very laudable, if too dense and slow in playing out. The acting is good, but the script and the over emotional reactions to life it portrays now seem too familiar and uninteresting. A pity as there is something to say here - the real Nazis got away with it, while the subordinates, eg prison guards etc have been tracked down and punished.

This film opens in 1986; two men in a car follow a young girl as she cycles down a farm track; one of them gets out, rapes and murders her. The other man does nothing to stop him but leaves town almost immediately afterwards. Returning to the present we see another young girl cycling away from home after an argument with her parents. She does not return and her bicycle is found at the site of the previous killing. No body is found but that matches with the original case where it wasn't found for some time. The police obviously realise the two cases are connected and after further investigations it looks as if there may have been a third girl although as her disappearance wasn't the same they are unsure; all they know is that a red car was seen at the time and one was seen at the same time as the 1986 case. Before learning exactly who killed the girl and why we don't just see the police investigation but also the effect it has had on her family and the actions of the two men we saw at the start; one of who is clearly trying to get back in touch with the other.This German crime drama was quite interesting in the way that it didn't only follow the police but also the families of the two missing girls and the men responsible for their grief. This led to some uncomfortable scenes when one of the two went to visit the mother of the first girl and later when a pregnant police woman visits the other to ask about the car he drove in the eighties. The actors did a good job although some of the characters were a little cliché; the main policeman was dealing with the death of his own wife and he disagreed with his boss about the case for example. The way the action moved between the protagonists kept the story interesting in a way that could be disturbing at times; this sense was heightened by the music used. Without giving blatant spoilers I will say the resolution is quite disturbing although given what had gone before it didn't exactly shock me. Overall I'd say this was worth watching but I'm not sure it is the sort of film I'd want to watch more than once.