Present days. A man and his companion go on a journey to cremate the dead body of the former beloved wife, on a riverbank in the area where they spent their honeymoon.
An unexpected cinematic treat.
With its languid long takes, séancelike flashbacks and spiritual yearning, there’s nothing here Andrei Tarkovsky didn’t achieve in his prime, but at a mere 78 minutes it maintains focus with admirable purity.
A beautiful piece of work: heart-wrending, atmospheric and truly poignant. Recommended.
Fedorchenko may not exactly be on oath with all of these Meryan traditions of his, but they create an utterly distinctive world, and the close harmony provided by a choir in one scene really is arresting.
It is an odd, low-key film but the brief running time ensures that it never overstays its welcome.
Ostensibly the story of a trip, it's also a poetic meditation on love, death and the disappearance of a culture.
Crisp, beautiful.
An incredibly moving and masterfully controlled experience.
Full of striking visual images and fragmentary half-truths – a dour meditation on love and death that arrests and alienates in equal measure.
Succeeds both as tender lament for departed loved ones and cultures, and as mischievous comedy on the same subject. It's been likened to Tarkovsky, but you could compare it to the Coens and Wes Anderson too.
Shot in crisp, chilly style, with obligatory nods to Andrei Tarkovsky, Silent Souls is a low-key oddity that – at 78 minutes – is just brief enough to remain compelling without feeling indulgent.
Aleksei Fedorchenko's drama is strange, slow, but also strangely moving in the plain, pared down way it looks at grief and friendship.
Its themes emerge slowly and the style is allusive and indirect, but it’s always clear that this is a haunting expression of life and extinction, of disappointments and possibilities.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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