The Silence (II) (2015) User Reviews

Powerful film with a strong message

[sam_smithreview · 10/10 · 15 February 2016]

A film that's titled "The Silence" has the courage and bravery to speak up and shed a light on a topic that otherwise people would choose to avoid. The Silence tackles the issues of not just those who abuse children, but rather those who see it, and choose not to say anything. Those whose silence causes more emotional pain and makes the children feel like it's their fault, or it's something that is believed to be okay. Silence can easily be represented as acceptance, especially from the eyes of a child. The film starts off with the most innocent sound known to men, a cry of a baby, which then transfers into a fast paced wave before it descends into silence. The film uses voice offer of four brave people who are willing to share their stories with the audience, and the directors uses Young actors to express the emotion visually. The use of minimalism in this film is done in such a way that it allows the audience to engage and not only see, but also feel the story that is being told to them. One of the more surprising aspects of this film, was that all the young actors were amazing. You could see the pain and the emotion through their eyes and body language. The Director Cleo Tellier did a fantastic joy of not trying to reenact each of the memories, but rather let the focus be on the innocence of the children, and the sad realization that those who do not speak up for them are just as guilty as those that abuse them. This was definitely a surprising gem at the festival! Absolutely amazing short film that grabs your heart and makes you brain think as well! Thank you for speaking up.

Individual tragedy

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 18 February 2018]

"The Silence" is a mostly English-language short film released in 2015 and it runs for under 15 minutes and even if it won nowhere anything really big, it was among the most mentionable players that awards season. Huge success for young female director Cleo Tellier, who's normally more of a prolific actress than a filmmaker herself. Her work here gives us an insight into the several ways of absue the protagonists here had to suffer through, some sexual, some physical, some guys, some girls, and they tell us themselves about what happened to them while we see situations depicting what they tell us from flashbacks. I think the execution is a bit simple, but it is still somewhat effective and the important subject is reason enough to not give this one a thumbs-down, even if in my opinion the execution could have been better and more competent overall. I think reading what they tell us in a book can be just as effective as watching this little movie. Overall, I cannot agree with all the awards recognition and the rating here on imdb that makes it one of the highest-rated documentaries of all time, even if only 100 people voted on it. Still, it is relatively touching, especially the audio and that's why I give it a positive recommendation, go see it.