Silent Land

A Polish couple holidaying in Sardinia finds its resolve tested in a promising debut from Aga Woszczynska.

This first feature by the Polish director Aga Woszczynska gives notice of a very individual talent. She is also the co-author of the screenplay, but it is her directorial skills that stand out in what is visually a very stylish film enhanced by the colour photography of Bartosz Świniarski. Not surprisingly her two central characters are Polish but we meet this married couple, Adam (Dobomir Dymecki) and Anna (Agnieszka Zulewska), just as they arrive in Sardinia for a holiday in the sun. They are obviously well off and have rented a villa with a swimming pool, but they find that the pool is not functioning. When they make a fuss about that, an immigrant worker (Ibrahim Keshk) is brought in to carry out immediate repairs but, tragically, when the job has just been completed and the pool is full of water, he falls in and is drowned.

Silent Land is a film which, despite having this death at its centre, is no thriller but a character study centred on the responses of Adam and Anna to what has happened. The opening scenes deliberately avoid close-up shots of the couple and there are many images of sky and sea which, together with a deeply considered emphasis on natural sounds, emphasise the world around them. The couple’s lifestyle would be envied by many but we are made to feel that they are, so to speak, in their own bubble. Especially in the first scenes, dialogue is minimal and the impression is of Adam and Anna being cut off from the concerns of the wider world and content just to indulge their luxury living. Being so distant and withdrawn from other levels of society, they feel initially unaffected by this death in the pool but later it will prove to have a huge impact on their lives. Indeed, ultimately they will have to face the question of how guilty they were for not taking more positive action when that just might have saved the man's life. Confronted by this issue how will they react?

The first close-up of Adam and Anna follows immediately after the immigrant’s fall into the pool but there is no footage to reveal in detail the moments when he was dying. The viewer is therefore left to ponder how much the couple saw and how much they knew. In setting up this situation, Aga Woszczynska takes her time but the pacing seems absolutely right and, with the narrative made to feel even more naturalistic due to the absence of any music score, there is a strong sense of place as well as a potent realisation of the couple’s privileged lives.

Ultimately Silent Land suffers from two weaknesses but it is persuasively acted and the directorial skill is deeply impressive. The screenplay, however, allows the work to last for some 113 minutes and, while I would not wish the film to move faster, the material seems stretched beyond its appropriate length. A second couple are introduced and appear to be present in order to provide a certain parallel with Adam and Anna. This other pair are French but live on the island and work as diving instructors. The roles are competently played by Jean-Marc Barr and Alma Jodorowsky but, although their talk reveals a near tragedy for which they arguably bear a measure of blame, it hardly adds enough to the story to justify the amount of screen time devoted to them. In contrast to that virtual irrelevance, the swimming pool death and the handling of it by the authorities do point to how immigrants, especially illegal ones, are treated and how commercial and economic considerations carry more weight than justice. Furthermore, Adam is a character whose concern over falling short of his own wish to be seen as a strong dominating male interestingly echoes the position of the husband in Ruben Östlund's Force Majeure (2014). But these elements are not pursued deeply enough to add significant extra weight and by the film’s close there is a sense that the drama is not strong enough to fully sustain a relatively long feature film.

The second weakness lies in the way in which the film moves away from realism. That tone seems to be set for much of the film’s length even if night storms could be viewed symbolically. More distractingly a number of shots of Adam walking alone at night among trees feel even more symbolic. Yet ultimately this is perhaps a rather inadequate attempt to build towards a final scene which embraces symbolism so wholeheartedly that it is at odds with most of what has preceded it. One gets the point that is being made, but artistically the mode adopted makes it feel out of place. However, even if these reservations build up, there is never any doubt but that Silent Land stands as strong evidence that in Aga Woszczynska Poland has found a major talent.

Original title: Cicha ziemia.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Cast: Dobromir Dymecki, Agnieszka Zulewska, Jean-Marc Barr, Alma Jodorowsky, Marcello Romolo, Gennaro Iaccarino, Claudio Bigagli, Elvis Esposito, Ibrahim Keshk.

Dir Aga Woszczynska, Pro Agnieszka Wasiak, Screenplay Aga Woszczynska and Piotr ‘Jaksa’ Litwin, Ph Bartosz Świniarski, Pro Des Ilaria Sadun, Ed Jarosław Kaminski, Costumes Anna Sikorską.

Lava Films/Kino Produzioni/I/O post/EC1 Lódz Miasto Kultury/Canal+Polska-Modern Films.
113 mins. Poland/Italy/Czech Republic. 2021. UK Rel: 23 September 2022. Cert. 15.