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SILENT VOICES, the first feature movie by French director Lea
Fehner, takes us to a place which still hasn’t been completely explored,
neither by cinema nor literature. Maybe it’s that we still avoid it since it
somehow fills us with fear? Or maybe it’s just better to pretend such places
do not exist? Well, although most of us would rather go around a prison,
because this is the particular place we’re talking about, Fehner has chosen
to come closer and take a look on what happens behind the walls.
There is another paradox. I think that when we watch a movie that concerns
prison, we usually witness a struggle in order to either survive there or
get out of it and be free. This time, however, all of the characters try to
get into prison. And it’s there where their life paths will finally meet.
All of them, Stephan, Zorah and Laure, came to this remote prison to visit
somebody: a criminal, a murderer and a lover. But the reasons of their
visits are different in every case and also each of them has their own
dramatic story that brought them to this place.
Stephane has never been able to seize an opportunity and simply can’t deal
with his own life: with his mother, his girlfriend, his job, etc. Then, one
day, under rather unexpected circumstances, he meets a businessman, Pierre,
who doesn’t treat him the way the rest of the world does. He seems to
respect him, to believe that he can help his friend. Furthermore, he offers
him a lot of money for this particular help. For the money and for himself,
Stephan’s going to prove that he is a real man who can make decisions about
his life, which, in this case, means staying in prison for somebody else.
Zorah comes from Algeria. Her beloved son emigrated to France a while ago
and she hasn’t seen him since then. One day she gets to know that he has
been killed. So she flies to France to give him the last goodbye and to find
out what had caused the tragedy. Once she’s there, she makes friends with
the murderer’s sister and she goes to the prison where he serves his
sentence in order to understand and, maybe, forgive.
I believe Zorah’s story is the most touching and interesting one. In any of
the moments can you be sure of what she thinks or what she’s planning to do
which builds a special kind of tension and fills your head with questions,
Also the scene where she’s washing her dead son’s body, which is forbidden
for women by the Algerian tradition, is one of the best in the movie and,
for as tragic as it is, it’s also somehow magnificent.
There’s also a young girl called Laure who feels in love with Alexander, a
young rebel she once met in a bus. When he’s arrested and goes to jail,
Laure, even though she seems ready for almost every sacrifice for him, will
learn that even love has its limits.
Each of the stories is filled with strong emotions and makes you wonder how
you would act if you were in their shoes. Also, the director managed to show
three very realistic stories, however complex they seem, none of which seems
at all pretentious.
Reda Kateb’s performance calls for applause as he’s amazingly convincing
both as a pathetic loser and then as a guy who goes through a kind of
transformation and becomes a totally different person. I believe his change
comes as a surprise not only for a viewer but also for himself.
Nevertheless, this very pass from a loser to a decisive guy isn’t at all
fake or corny. On the contrary, it’s even too real.
For as far as I know, it’s the second time this year for Vincent Rotiers on
the Venice Film Festival’s screen and, like in the Claude and Nathan
Millers’ movie I’m glad that my
mother is alive, his performance is brilliant and deeply moving.
Also, his character reveals to us the other side of prison- the physical,
erotic, vulgar one where one of the characters, Laure, will find herself
eventually.
As Fehner said, there’s something about prison that is “terribly indecent
and powerful” at the same time. I think these are exactly the two
contradictory feelings she has perfectly managed to present in SILENT
VOICES. Also, I believe this is a quite new, original way of talking about
prison and it’s the one that I definitely prefer.
09:09:2009
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