Is Kylo Ren looking to bring Qui-Gon Jinn to the Dark Side? LOL. Just kidding. But seriously, this film is going to hold your attention unlike anything we’ve seen so far this year. It took three decades in the making, because Martin Scorsese is a fine intellect when it comes to cinema that is a cut above the rest. Adapted from the book Silence written in 1966 by Japanese writer Shusaku Endo, this one is for the unbeliever in you.
There was a time when Christians were being persecuted in different parts of the world. It wasn’t easy for missionaries, foreign or local, to be safe and openly declare their faith, for fear of being tortured and put to death for their beliefs. Countless stories of martyrs have speckled history books, and one such story illuminates the trials of young priests who voluntarily sail to Japan, during the Edo period.
The storyline for Silence is about two young Jesuit missionaries, Father Sebastião Rodrigues and Father Francisco Garrpe who travel across the world to bring back their mentor, a Catholic priest who went rogue, publicly abandoning the faith and disappearing altogether. All they have is their faith to carry them through this journey, one that is masked with poverty, trials, temptations and the ever-present danger of persecution and death. The first trailer for the meditative film has been released, and for 2 minutes and 13 seconds, you are completely pulled in. Watch below
Cast
Andrew Garfield as Father Sebastião Rodrigues
Adam Driver as Father Francisco Garrpe
Liam Neeson as Father Cristóvão Ferreira
Ciarán Hinds as Father Valignano
Shinya Tsukamoto as Mokichi
Yōsuke Kubozuka as Kichijiro
If there is one negative to pull from the movie, it’s that they have used Japanese actors to play the role of Japanese characters, but have once again whitewashed the main cast, using well-known Hollywood actors of Caucasian origin to play non-American roles with fake accents.
Scorsese’s last release was 2013’s biggest hit starring Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street, which was anything but meditative!
Silence is directed by Martin Scorsese and will be released by Paramount Pictures. It is looking for an official release date of December 23, 2016 so we can all have a contemplative Christmas.
