The work of the Dutch director Nanouk Leopold isn't know here at all. Perhaps that's because the films she makes are not only uncommercial but also uncompromising. "It's all so quiet", which she made in 2013, is, for the most part, a depressingly grim study of loneliness and sexual repression as well as of old age and family relations, in this case between a father and son. Helmer is a farmer living with, and caring for, his old and infirm father. There doesn't appear to be much love or affection between them; it's as if Helmer can't wait for his father to die.
Nothing much happens. Much of the time we simply watch Helmer go about his daily routine, at first alone and then with the help of handsome young farmhand Henk. There is very little communication between any of the characters; this is a very austere picture, shot in bleached colours that are almost monochromatic. Once upon a time you might have said Bresson or Dryer could have made this, (Helmer also keeps donkeys), and it isn't called "It's all so quiet" for nothing. This is a film in which the sounds of silence dominate. Not easy viewing then, but remarkable nevertheless.
