He was once an altar server, considered becoming a priest, and spent a lifetime developing Catholic themes. So Martin Scorsese's religious film Silence comes as no surprise.
After the tremendous success of the excessive, baroque Wolf of Wall Street, the 74-year-old Martin Scorsese saw his chance to complete an old passion project. The restrained and intense Silence is based on a novel by Shusaku Endo and centres on two young Portuguese Jesuits (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) who travel to Japan in the 17th century to find out what happened to the priest Cristóvão Ferreira (Liam Neeson).
They refuse to believe that their great hero has renounced his faith and now works for the Japanese inquisition, which – who could imagine? – outmatches the Spanish Inquisition in its cruelty and efficiency. Japan perceives Christianity as a threat to national security and doesn't want the faith to take root. Christians are hunted down.
Those who refuse to renounce their faith are tortured until they come to their senses. The torture techniques are horrific. Hanging people upside down over pits with little cuts behind their ear so that they bleed to death very slowly – who could devise such a punishment?
When the Jesuit Sebastião Rodrigues, Garfield's character, hears their cries and moans, he can only save their lives by renouncing his faith. What to do? Opt for martyrdom? For the faith, for God? Or choose to help the people who can be saved here and now? God's silence is deafening.
The spiritual anguish is as painful and intense as the physical suffering. Scorsese's film is sober and tense: shot with both feet firmly on the ground and not with his head in the clouds. The result is a powerful, intense film that inspires reflection. But one question bothers us: why did Scorsese think it necessary to add "Ad majorem Dei gloriam" to the credits?
> Silence. US, 2016, dir.: Martin Scorsese, act.: Adam Driver, Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson, 181 min.
> UGC De Brouckère, UGC Gulden Vlies/Toison d'Or, White Cinema
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