8/3 - Silent Light
Thursday (8/3) we’ll be screening Silent Light (Stellet Licht) from 2007, written and directed by Carlos Reygadas. Filmed in a Mennonite colony in Northern Mexico, the film follows a married man who falls in love with another woman:
The sun floods the wide sky in Silent Light like a beacon, spilling over the austere land and illuminating its pale, pale people as if from within. A fictional story about everyday rapture in an isolated Mennonite community in northern Mexico and performed by a cast of mostly Mennonite nonprofessionals the film was written, directed and somehow willed into unlikely existence by the extravagantly talented Carlos Reygadas, whose immersion in this exotic world feels so deep and true that it seems like an act of faith. - Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Not to be dramatic, but it literally gives me chills to write this little excerpt about Silent Light. The movie features non-professional actors speaking in Plautdietsch, the Low German dialect of the Mennonites, who in their quiet realness give some of the most moving (and heartbreaking) performances I’ve ever seen, coupled with the bucolic landscapes of Chihuahua which imbue the film with a sublime visual richness. Overtly echoing influence from some of the greats (Dreyer, Tarkovsky, Tarr, Bresson, etc.), Silent Light is beautifully referential, while also feels completely its own. Gentle, tender, entirely human, with the quintessential Reygadas touch of transcendent magic, Silent Light is a movie that really made me recalibrate after watching.
I’ve wanted to show Silent Light at Working Room for awhile, but have been a little hesitant given its slower pace, but I’m hoping that it will bring a contemplative reprise of deep beauty during hot and sticky early August.
Silent Light will be playing at Working Room Thursday, August 3. Doors will open at 7:00 PM and the movie will begin promptly at 8:00 PM! RSVP is not required but is always appreciated. Feel free to bring some drinks or snacks to share!
<3 Liza