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Silence took Martin Scorsese nearly 30 years to make
The period drama set in feudal Japan is an epic of divine proportion, tackling grand questions of faith and colonisation with remarkable fervour
TL;DR
- Jesuit missionaries Sebastião Rodrigues and Francisco Garupe travel to 17th-century Japan to find their missing mentor.
- They discover "Kirishitans," Japanese Catholics forced to practice their faith in secret due to religious heresy laws.
- Rodrigues begins to question his faith as he witnesses the struggles and differing beliefs of the Japanese Christians.
- Martin Scorsese's film "Silence" was a passion project developed over nearly three decades.
- The film explores themes of spirituality, divine presence, and the complexities of faith amidst persecution.
- Japanese Christians, led by figures like Ichizo and Mokichi, demonstrate humility and strong devotion despite the risks.
- Inquisitor Inoue seeks to eradicate Christianity, linking it to resistance against Western colonialism.
- The film questions whether the brutal prosecution of Christians is justified, considering Christianity's arrival with colonial forces.
- "Silence" is an adaptation of Shūsaku Endō's novel, with previous film adaptations in 1971 and 1996.