Philm series | Silent Light | Reygadas

This is a masterpiece of slow-paced hyper – culminating in magical – realism by director Carlos Reygadas. The love triangle is set in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua within a century-old rural colony of German Mennonites. Most of the cast are non-actors and actual members of the Mennonite community. They speak Plautdietsch, a dialect of German, few, even Germans, today speak. So the rest of the world needs subtitles. The tension of infidelity in a profoundly religious community is arresting. The director is known for sometimes brutally juxtaposing sexual and religious sensibility, but this film approaches the theme with exquisite sensitivity and humanity. Reminiscent, at times, of Carl Theodor Dreyer, Robert Bresson, Terence Malick, and Andrei Tarkovsky, Reygadas’ pace and cinematic vision is more personal and unique.

• Cannes Film Festival 2007 Jury Prize
• Among the top 25 films of the 21st Century, NYT
• “On Heaven as it is in Earth,” by José Teodoro at Film Comment.
• Extended interview with director: "FRAMES of REPRESENTATION 2019: The Cinema of Carlos Reygadas - Masterclass."

You can find clips and low-resolution trailers in various languages online, but I will send a link to a high resolution copy of the film with English subtitles to those who RSVP yes.