Silent Light forces its audience to stare straight into the heart of grief, utilizing breathtaking cinematography and a sleepy yet captivating atmosphere.
Director: Carlos Reygadas
Genre: Drama, Romance
Run Time: 137′
Original Release: December 2007
4K Restoration Premiere: August 12, 2025
Where to Watch: At the Locarno Film Festival
Silent Light (Stellet Licht), winner of the 2007 Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, begins with a long shot of a sunrise, with crickets and some fractured breathing in the background. It’s an eerie, slow opening, one that sets the tone for the rest of what the audience is about to witness. Silent Light is slow and contemplative, using its gorgeous cinematography and layered performances to reckon with the effect guilt can have on personal lives and communities.
Johan (Cornelio Wall) is a married Mennonite man who is having an affair with Marianne (Maria Pankratz). Johan’s wife, Esther (Miriam Toews), is aware of this, and the two struggle to keep their happy life with their kids afloat as the consequences of Johan’s actions begin to catch up to him. While the setup reeks of melodrama, director Carlos Reygadas finds the perfect balance for the film’s tone, and he does so in an unusual way: pitting certain filmic elements against each other.
Looking first at the cinematography, the audience might expect from Silent Light a transcendental, spiritual journey through the lives of these characters á la Terrence Malick. The film, especially in this newly restored version, is stunning. Director of photography Alexis Zabe, in collaboration with Reygadas, crafts and paints this religious community with great care, highlighting the simple beauty of a field or a hillside. The film’s use of framing and its focus on small-town life will remind audiences of the peacefulness of David Lynch’s The Straight Story. Its beauty feels poetic and symmetric, utilizing similar shots throughout the film (including a long sunset in the last minutes to bookend its opening), resembling something out of a storybook or a wonderful dream.
While the cinematography does feel like something out of a scenic dream, the tone of the film is actually quite nightmarish. The subject matter (infidelity, familial brokenness) is heavy, and the performers lean into the movie’s themes in an eerie, almost sinister way. The performances are mostly straightforward, but awkward in a calculated way. There are times where the lines being delivered seem to not match the tone in which they are delivered. In a conversation while driving, Esther refers to the mistress as a “damn whore” in a way that evokes pity rather than anger.
The movie feels quiet…until it doesn’t. It erupts in short bursts of emotion, usually characters breaking down in tears over the circumstances they find themselves in. After long takes of breathtaking scenery, these moments are effectively jarring. The film offers a coldness that some viewers will not respond to, but that unnatural feeling highlights Johan’s vain attempts to act as if everything is all right in his world, even as darkness pervades.
Reygadas’s ability to mix conflicting elements into a seamless narrative is quite miraculous, just as the film’s final act seems to contain its own miracle. Moments in this movie border on the absurd, the dreamlike. Despite its slowness, Silent Light keeps its audience wondering about our desires, about how our own guilt may slowly be eating away at an otherwise beautiful existence.
Silent Light: Movie Plot & Recap
Synopsis:
A married man in a strict Mennonite community has an affair and falls in love with another woman. He and those in his circle are forced to deal with his actions, despite his best attempts to keep the affair muted.
Pros:
- The film utilizes long takes and gorgeous landscapes
- Carlos Reygadas directs the film with a sense of slow eeriness, somehow able to miraculously contrast the film’s story to its bright cinematography.
Cons:
- The film will certainly move too slowly for some viewers. Some may wonder if this pace is necessary for the story’s effectiveness.
The 4K re-release of Silent Light, restored by Coproduction Office and Carlos Reygadas with L’Immagine Ritrovata and Splendor Omnia Studios, will have its World Premiere at the Locarno Film Festival on August 12, 2025.
