A Question of Silence

Marleen Gorris's 1982 Dutch film opens with a murder committed simultaneously by three women who do not know each other. A woman is caught shoplifting in a clothing shop; two other customers become involved and together the three kill the male shopkeeper. None of them shows remorse afterwards or explains why. Janine, the psychiatrist assigned to the case, establishes that all three are sane and tries to understand the reason, and as her inquiry advances she recognises similar situations in her own life. The film does not present the killing as a mystery; it shows the silencing of women in daily life as an accumulation, and the final scene in the courtroom brings that out. It was Gorris's first film and provoked hard argument on release. Who it's for: viewers who can take feminist cinema and films that provoke argument. Who it's not for: anyone uncomfortable with violence being given reasons; the film opens that to debate.