Academy of World Cinema: Silent Light

Carlos Reygadas's film is a poignant picture about sadness, suffering, love, lust, betrayal, sacrifice, strength and weakness of man. The people who starred in the film are not professional actors. Most of them are Mennonites. Perhaps that is why their lives were presented in such an authentic, natural way. Admittedly, the director emphasizes that his film is not about Mennonites, but about people in general. However, by showing a hermetic community that lives by strict religious principles, the problem of marital infidelity and fidelity has been brilliantly sharpened.

John, husband and father, is transgressing God's law. He falls in love with another woman and cheats on his wife with her. It disrupts the harmony of the world in which it was formed and is inevitably heading towards defeat.

Johan is a Mennonite. He lives with his family in a remote Protestant village in northern Mexico. According to the rules of his faith, he should be faithful to the woman he married and who gave birth to his children. In his community, divorces do not exist. The life of the Mennonites is the path that leads to holiness. This means that strict rules must be observed: pray, work hard, give up pleasure, live in simplicity, respect nature. You have to demand a lot from each other. It's a world of clear, clean rules. Failure to comply with them threatens exclusion from the community. Johan knows very well who he is and what he should not do. However, he falls in love and discovers that man is also ruled by the power of desire and desire. Although he has a strong sense of guilt, he cannot give up his forbidden love.

17:00 - lecture by Prof. Rafał Syska, 18:30 - screening of the film “Silent Light”, after the film discussion.

director Carlos Reygadas time: 240' production: Mexico, France, Netherlands, Germany, 2007 cast: Cornelio Wall, Maria Pankratz, Miriam Toews genre: Drama