Voice of Silence

Tae-in and Chang-bok sell eggs. That is not their real work; they clean up after an organisation. When an interrogation is over they go in, clean the room, take the body and bury it in a field. The work is regular and so is the pay. One day something else is asked of them: to watch an abducted eleven year old girl for one night. The next day the man who was to collect her is found dead and the girl is left with them. Tae-in never speaks. The girl starts staying at the house and settles into the routine. Hong Eui-jeong wrote and directed; it is her first film. Yoo Ah-in, Yoo Jae-myung, Moon Seung-ah and Lee Ga-eun are in the cast. It is a South Korean production. Yoo Ah-in does not say a word in the film and builds the character with his body. The matter it treats is responsibility sliding away; nobody is directly guilty and everyone is doing a job. The film does not show the violence; the narrative always looks at what comes after it is over. The narrative carries black humour and the ordinariness of the two men is its source. The girl does not behave like a victim and starts putting the house in order. The photography shoots the Korean countryside wide and calm; the tone runs against the events. The narrative declares no moral conclusion. The ending closes on a single look and is uncomfortable. Its limit is tone; the narrative is cold, the pace slow, and the ending explains nothing. Who it is for: viewers who like Korean independent cinema and uncomfortable stories. Who it is not for: it is cold, slow, and the ending unresolved.