Nanouk Leopold adapted Gerbrand Bakker's novel 'Boven is het stil' into a screenplay and directed this cinematic masterpiece IT'S ALL SO QUIET – a perfect balance between silence and the spoken word that results in one of the most tender examinations of life, death and love and the interstices few others have revealed.
Leopold's decision to interplay nature as a place where all animals including man find shelter, food, caring and love makes this visual and very quiet film indelible in the memory.
Helmer (Jeroen Willems) is a single farmer in his fifties who lives with and cares for his aged, bedridden father (Henri Garcin) in the Dutch countryside. His working days are marked by the visits of milk collector Johan (Wim Opbrouck), a man of his own age for whom Helmer holds a secret fascination – a mutual need is evident but unspoken. One day Helmer decides to renovate the house, buying himself a new double bed and moving his father upstairs. His life gains even more momentum when adolescent farmhand Henk (Martijn Lakemeier) is hired to assist, understudies Helmer's techniques for farming and adds some needed cleaning and caring for the farm: he also finds Helmer attractive and attempts to be physical one night – the result of which changes Helmer's thoughts and desires. In this battle of wills between two powerful personalities the father, once domineering and now in decline, and the son, preparing to live his own life when his father is gone what is left unsaid takes precedence over dialogue. But when unexpected words do come to Helmer late in the film, their quiet force is indisputable. The scene when his father finally dies with Helmer at his side is inordinately touch in it very quiet manner. Henk has left, Helmer returns to his farming chores, and at his father's burial, Johan returns and we are left to wonder what will change.
Leaves, cornfields, barren trees, a raven, sheep, cows and silence make this thoughtful paean to life immensely satisfying, Very Highly Recommended.
