- dir. PHILIP GRÖNING
- year. 2006
- country. GERMANY, FRANCE
- run-time. 2h 42min
- rating. E
£5 (£3.50 conc.)
Film 15:30
INTO GREAT SILENCE takes the viewer inside a monastic life that has remained almost unchanged for hundreds of years. The film follows the monks in eschewing unnecessary sound, there are no voice overs and no interviews. The sounds and rhythms of the daily routines and religious observance structure the film. This is observational documentary approaching the level of meditative poem.
It is the first documentary feature on the life inside the mother house of the Carthusian order in the French Alps, before the making of the film the last photographs from inside the monastery had been taken in 1960.
INTO GREAT SILENCE won the Best Documentary Award at the 2006 European Films Awards and the Special Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.
In Latin and French with English subtitles
“A rare celluloid experience that truly transports us into another world”