Silent Light

Silent Light
Film poster
Directed byCarlos Reygadas
Written byCarlos Reygadas
Produced byCarlos Reygadas
Jaime Romandia
StarringElizabeth Fehr
Jacobo Klassen
Maria Pankratz [de]
Miriam Toews
Cornelio Wall
Peter Wall
CinematographyAlexis Zabe
Edited byNatalia López
Production
companies
Distributed byPalisades Tartan
NDMantarraya
Release dates
  • May 22, 2007 (2007-05-22) (Cannes Film Festival)
  • August 12, 2007 (2007-20-12) (Mexico)
Running time
136 minutes
CountriesMexico
France
Netherlands
Germany
LanguagePlautdietsch

Silent Light (Plautdietsch: Stellet Licht) is a 2007 film written and directed by Carlos Reygadas. Filmed in a Mennonite colony close to Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua State, Northern Mexico, Silent Light tells the story of a Mennonite married man who falls in love with another woman, threatening his place in the conservative community. The dialogue is in Plautdietsch, the Low German dialect of the Mennonites. The film was selected as the Mexican entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 80th Academy Awards, but it did not make the shortlist.[1] The film was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 24th Independent Spirit Awards.[2] It gained nine nominations, including all major categories, in the Ariel Awards, the Mexican national awards.

Martin Scorsese described the work as "A surprising picture and a very moving one as well", while Barry Jenkins in 2019 named it as the best film of the 21st century.[3][4] It was awarded the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.[5] In 2017, the film was named the twenty-third "Best Film of the 21st Century So Far" by The New York Times.[6]

  1. ^ "- YouTube". YouTube.
  2. ^ Maxwell, Michael Jones,Erin; Jones, Michael; Maxwell, Erin (December 2, 2008). "Spirit Award nominees announced".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ "SILENT LIGHT previously at Film Forum in New York City". Filmforum.org. Archived from the original on 2010-11-07. Retrieved 2010-12-12.
  4. ^ "The directors' cut: film-makers choose the best movies of the century so far". The Guardian. 13 September 2019. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  5. ^ "Jury Prize: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and to Silent Light by Carlos Reygadas". http://www.festival-cannes.com. 27 May 2007. Retrieved 7 October 2012. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ Dargis, Manohla; Scott, A.O. (9 June 2017). "The 25 Best Films of the 21st Century...So Far". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 July 2017.