Silent Light
Silent Light is an odd yet insightful and masterfully photographed bit of cinema. With an incongruous juxtaposing we have a Mennonite community in Chihuahua Mexico where I’m startled to find they get snow in the winter these days. The cast are less actors than actual Mennonites playing their parts while speaking their own hybrid language but religion is completely out of the picture. In fact unfaithfulness in the carnal sense is central to the story that none the less puts us into the rather fascinating operation of simple farming life wrapped around a love triangle. Johan (Cornelio Wall) is the father of a large family who is conflicted because he’s in love with Marianne (Maria Pankratz) who is not his wife. He‘s actually married to Esther (Manitoba author Miriam Toews) to whom he has been honest about the affair since its start. There is an astonishing lack of malice between the two women but that doesn’t mean that human emotions don’t take their toll. Running over two hours mostly due to the ultra slow pace of the action Silent Light is nothing short of a work of art with a payoff for those with enough patience to wait for it.