Silent Heart

Esther, whose terminal illness is advancing, has decided to end her own life, and gathers the family at home for one last weekend. Everybody knows the decision. The question is not the decision but how those two days are to be spent. The film is not interested in the euthanasia debate. It is interested in the family's internal bookkeeping: the two sisters are angry with each other rather than with their mother, the sons-in-law are caught in between, and old accounts open at exactly the worst moment. The form is chamber drama: one house, a few rooms, a countable number of days. The camera is calm, the cutting sparse, and the performances carry it. Bille August directed. He is a filmmaker who won the Palme d'Or twice, for Pelle the Conqueror and The Best Intentions; here he drops that scale of historical storytelling and withdraws entirely indoors. Ghita Nørby plays Esther, Morten Grunwald her husband, and Paprika Steen one of the daughters. Who it is for: viewers who like Scandinavian family drama and acting-led cinema. Who it is not for: anyone who cannot carry the weight of the subject, or who wants resolution. The film sides with nobody and ends where everyone is right and no one is relieved.