Silence

Japan in the seventeenth century. Christianity is banned and believers are hunted. Two Portuguese Jesuits enter the country in secret; they want both to reach the hidden congregations and to find their teacher, who came years earlier and is said to have renounced his faith. They hide in villages. Villagers who are caught are tortured, and one thing is asked of the priests: to step on a sacred image laid on the ground. That counts as the sign of renunciation. Masahiro Shinoda directs. The source is Shusaku Endo's novel, and Endo took part in writing the screenplay; he later said he was not satisfied with the way the film was resolved. The music is by Toru Takemitsu. The question at the centre is this: what does it mean to believe in a god who stays silent while people die for a priest's faith. The title comes from there. Shinoda's view is from the Japanese side; the film treats not only the persecution but how a foreign faith arrived here and what it changed. The same novel was filmed again by Martin Scorsese in 2016; the two films give the same scenes from different places. The scenes of torture are direct and long, and the narrative gives the viewer no relief. Who it is for: viewers who follow Japanese cinema and heavy drama built on faith. Who it is not for: it is slow, the violence is severe, and some passages stay abstract without the theological argument.