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WINTERSTILTE (WINTER SILENCE)

Holland, 2009, 70 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Sonja Wyss.

It is somewhat odd that a director from the flattest of lands, Holland, should make a film about life in remote, wintry German mountains.

This is a 70 minute docudrama, virtually no dialogue, though Ave Maria is sung and one daughter murmurs the rosary.

The beautiful cinematography is poetic: mountains, clouds, sky, sun emerging, night... The moods of the day and night reflect the grief at the father's death in a mountain fall but the main focus is on a mother and her four adult daughters. Life seems ordinary (details of washing and hanging it out to dry, dough kneading...) but when mysterious men visit the village there is a night of release of repression. Sounds in one sequence indicate that the mother is involved in miscarriage activity and she tosses a bundle from the bridge, finishing with putting some shavings from the base of a statue of Mary in water for one of the daughters to drink.

No explanations. The director relies on audience knowledge and interpretation.

1.A poetic glimpse of an isolated community and their way of life?

2.A Dutch director, and her working in mountain territory?

3.The cinematography: mountains, snow, sky, the angles for the views? The village, the interiors of the homes, the streets, light and dark?

4.The editing and pace, slow and contemplative?

5.The musical score, orchestrated? The playing of ‘Ave Maria’?

6.The father and daughter and their climb, his fall, her going for help, the town rallying, the funeral, grief?

7.The mother as a matriarch, grief at her husband’s death, the final remembering of the wedding and the joy? Her daughters, severity? Issues of sexuality? Abortion, miscarriage? The bridge and throwing over the package? The shavings of the statue of the Madonna in the water?

8.The girls in themselves, their way of life, the home, room, seeing them at work, kneading the bread, washing and cleaning?

9.The men, hooded, mysterious? The girl showing the leg? The night and the sexuality, the consequences? The effect on each of the women?

10.The Catholic background, icons, the crucifix, the fresco of the Pieta, the statue of Mary, the singing of ‘Ave Maria’, the girl praying the Rosary at night? The influence of these Catholic traditions? Their meaning?

11.The mother seeing the flowers in the snow, the coming of spring and new life?

12.The 21st century and an isolated community? The old ways? Cut off? The limits? Behaviour and attitudes? Possibilities of change?