The Silence

2010 ‘Das letzte Schweigen’ Directed by Baran bo Odar

13-year-old Sinikka vanishes on a hot summer night. Her bicycle is found in the exact place where a girl was killed 23 years ago. The dramatic present forces those involved in the original case to face their past.

Ulrich Thomsen Wotan Wilke Möhring Katrin Sass Sebastian Blomberg Burghart Klaußner Oliver Stokowski Karoline Eichhorn Jule Böwe Roeland Wiesnekker Claudia Michelsen Lena Klenke Helene Luise Doppler Michael Dorn Hilmar Eichhorn Amon Robert Wendel Kara McSorley Eric Bouwer Johann Jürgens Hildegard Schroedter

Alternative Titles

Das Schweigen, Silencio de hielo, Il était une fois un meurtre, Néma csönd, Cisza, O Silêncio

crime thriller

120 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by UltimateMovieRankings ★★★½ 2

This German film is about a 13-year-old girl who vanishes on the 23rd anniversary of another girl was killed 23 years ago. The two incidents have the same location and appear to be done by the same person. The mystery of the girl is not what the movie is really about.....it is more about...it is more of a study of how one horrible act of violence influences and destroys so many other lives. There is not a whole lot of Disney songs in this one....as almost every single character is dealing with guilt, loss and silence. This one is very well done....but certainly not a crowd pleasing movie. Actually as a father of three daughters this one is pretty damn scary in a realistic way. The bad guy in this one seems like true evil versus the movie evil of Jason or Freddy. I recommend it but do not expect a good time.
Review by Steve G 🟨🟥 ★★★★½ 4

The World Is More Than Enough 2: Back To The 30 Countries (8/30 - Germany)
Considering my recent record with European thrillers about sexual violence and murder, I think I would have been happy if The Silence had just been quite good.
As it turned out, The Silence is a quite outstanding film that manages to be several things at once whilst excelling at all of them. In fact, the only thing is struggles with throughout is regards to Sebastian Blomberg's grieving detective who has only just returned to work after the death of his wife several months previously. That is nothing to do with Blomberg's performance here, which is very good, more the rather stereotypically 'tortured cop' treatment of…
Review by Sozee ★★★★½ 2

"I hadn't seen him in ages."
"I had sent him a message."
- Peer
Film ini mengulas studi karakter dari berbagai sudut pandang berdasarkan kejadian pembunuhan seorang anak, yaitu orang tua korban, polisi, dan pelaku. Semuanya dieksekusi dengan penulisan naskah dan struktur plot yang cukup solid. Jadi, ini bukan lah sebuah sajian crime-mystery yang cukup kuat untuk memicu rasa penasaran, melainkan menjadi lebih seperti studi karakter dari beberapa sudut pandang yang berkaitan dengan kejadian naas tersebut.
>Premis :
Pada musim panas 1986 di Jerman, dua orang pemuda (Timo dan Peer) yang memiliki fetish yang sama (pedofil) melakukan pelecehan kepada seorang anak perempuan yang pada akhirnya tewas dibunuh oleh Peer. 23 tahun kemudian, Timo yang sudah berkeluarga dan hidup tenang telah…
Review by Rakestraw ★★★ 3

Baran bo Odar's The Silence has a lot going on within its 118 runtime, so much so that most of the film's proceedings seem to be lightly touched upon, but never fully developed or completely realized. The director, perhaps, is hoping that the viewer will fill in most of the blanks when it comes to the topics of obsession, lost, guilt, grief, emotional breakdowns, ruined marriages, retirement, that-one-case-that-haunts-every-damn-cop-that-eventually-rears-it's-ugly-head-again-right-after-retirement, and so on, but honestly everything comes across as underdeveloped and lackluster.
Most of the scenes are fantastically composed though, especially bo Odar/Odar (I'm at a loss for what the last name is here) and cinematographer Nikolaus Summerer's use of stunning overhead filming. Unfortunately, to go along with that they also rely…
Review by russman ★★★½

Hangin' out the passenger side of his best friend's ride
Review by Thomas Ringdal ★★★½

Der Deutsche Dezember film#7.
The hunt for a paedophile killer brings back bitter memories from the past on both sides, but the script isn't sharp enough to keep my toes on the edge the whole ride.
It's directed in a nice, minimalistic way, in a tempo I always seem to appreciate and the DP has a keen eye for cinematography.
Cut this down about 20 mins, and make most of those minutes of outtakes the melodramatic ones, and you've probably got an excellent thriller.
Ulrich Thomsen is the standout performer in front of the camera, with added plaudits for Sebastian Blomberg.
Review by Pat Gambardella ★★★★

Second Shocktober: #10 The Silence
The Silence is so far my personal highlight of my second shocktober. The opening scene was astonishing gruesome and blew me away. The cinematography was master class and even the acting especially of Möhring and Thomsen we're rock solid. The pacing was perfect as well.
Only thing I want to remark was the sometimes exaggerated dramatizing,
Review by Jonathan White ★★

Lise and Jonnie's What A Wonderful World 2015
It’s a difficult task to get me onboard for a film about pedophilia. Even the excellent Danish film The Hunt was a struggle for me, and in that one it’s clear from the beginning that nothing has happened. Markus Schleinzer’s 2011 film, Michael, was even more of a challenge, and more frightening because the titular character didn’t have horns and fangs.
Well, while this one was crafted to be a police procedural with a hide-in-plain-sight motif, I still really have a problem with giving it a pass. The original detective being retired, and the new appointee just recovering from his own devastating loss wasn’t enough to make me find this either original…
Review by Rahul Ranjan ★★★

55/100
Can't believe that they tried to sympathize with pedophile, rapist and child-murderer and let him get away.
Also slightly unfocused and sometimes terribly acted.
Review by Tanay Borkar ★★★½ 9

I know not many have seen this so this is more of recommendation. Especially for fans of twisted murder mysteries.
Review by Lise ★★½

30 countries challenge - film 9 - Germany
Some of the ideas in this film were good and some of the execution was effective but for the most part the film suffers from what looks to be newbie mistakes.
The crime drama seems to seek out too much sympathy from the audience for a child killer. There is one camera shot in particular where we see the killer in his doorway after something happens to make him sad. The piano score, beautiful elsewhere but completely misplaced here, is basically asking us to feel for the guy.
That's a problem. You are asking a huge favour from the audience when you want them to almost empathize with a child killer, but…
Review by smallclone ★★★★

Baran Bo Odar's 'Dark' was one of the best TV Series of 2018. So I wanted to check out this movie - it is almost a pre-cursor to 'Dark' in that it also features similar events occurring with large amounts of time between them.
The film centres around murder and grief but also friendship. The photography by Nikolaus Summerer (who also did the cinematography for Dark) is absolutely stunning. The overhead shots of the Bavarian countryside are just a joy to watch. There are some coincidences and subplots that perhaps don't quite flow as they should, but overall it is a really intelligently written and Directed detective movie - with a lot of heart and soul too. A hidden gem of 2010.
8/10

Recent reviews

Review by Sebastian Staszak ★★★

Przyzwoity gatunkowiec ze świetnymi zdjęciami. Nie zagłębia się w niuanse tylko leci z intrygą do napisów końcowych. Aktorstwo czasem niedomaga.
Review by mackinj ★★★½

One of the more suspenseful thrillers I’ve seen recently. Although the story ends up not doing enough and I like how it ends with a more ambiguous and intentionally unanswered note but it was more so the stories between the characters I wanted more of. Still, I was engaged entirely, bitin my nails like a mother fucker throughout this mostly haunting, fucked up thriller.
*iTunes
Review by Nick Rissmeyer ★★★

Not bad, not great.
This was a pretty typical murder mystery with maybe a slightly different spin on things towards the end that makes it worth it.
The good: The main idea of the plot is relatively smart and theres a few standout acting moments specifically when the cops are arguing in the parking lot towards the end. The way they tie the two events together was pretty cool also.
The bad: It feels very over long considering what happens. It’s shot fine, the cinematography is not necessarily stylish or flashy but also not horrible but definitely not something that needs to over bloat the length here. Everything kind of takes too long and I lost interest like halfway through…
Review by Mark Walker✨ ★★★½

I was drawn to this primarily because of director Baran bo Odar who delivered the absolutely sublime German Tv series Dark. Now maybe my expectations of The Silence were somewhat high due to the intricacy of the aforementioned show but to be fair, not many things can compete with Dark’s greatness. That aside, The Silence is still a gripping procedural crime thriller that explores the heady themes of guilt, grief and obsession and it does so with a measured pace while affording each of its actors the space to relate their characters in their many different forms of torment.
Review by facundo ★★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Antes de verla leí que el director es el mismo de la serie Dark, entonces pensé ''esto me va a volar a mente'' pero no fue así. Creí que era sobre viajes en el tiempo pero tampoco fue así.
Silence de Hielo es un thriller/crimen excepcional, complejo, cruel, crudo, retorcido y demoledor sobre un asesinato que se vuelve a repetir 23 años despues.
La industria del cine alemán nunca decepciona cuando se trata de este género.
Review by gaspe ★★½

Good psycho killer movie.
Review by sascha2021 ★★★★

Sehr spannend, schwere Kost aber toll erzählt, quasi der Vorläufer zur Dark-Serie. Super Filmmusik.
Review by Sozee ★★★★½ 2

"I hadn't seen him in ages."
"I had sent him a message."
- Peer
Film ini mengulas studi karakter dari berbagai sudut pandang berdasarkan kejadian pembunuhan seorang anak, yaitu orang tua korban, polisi, dan pelaku. Semuanya dieksekusi dengan penulisan naskah dan struktur plot yang cukup solid. Jadi, ini bukan lah sebuah sajian crime-mystery yang cukup kuat untuk memicu rasa penasaran, melainkan menjadi lebih seperti studi karakter dari beberapa sudut pandang yang berkaitan dengan kejadian naas tersebut.
>Premis :
Pada musim panas 1986 di Jerman, dua orang pemuda (Timo dan Peer) yang memiliki fetish yang sama (pedofil) melakukan pelecehan kepada seorang anak perempuan yang pada akhirnya tewas dibunuh oleh Peer. 23 tahun kemudian, Timo yang sudah berkeluarga dan hidup tenang telah…
Review by Christian76 ★★★★

Ein ziemlich erstaunlicher deutscher Film.
Anscheinend hierzulande fürs Fernsehen gedreht, aber in den USA im Kino gelaufen. Auch zurecht, weil die Bilder wirklich sowas von Kino sind. Würde mich sehr wundern, wenn das für den Regisseur Baran bo Odar (kannte ich vorher überhaupt nicht) nicht ein Start für ne große Karriere sein sollte.
Die Geschichte von "Das letzte Schweigen" ist schön verwinkelt erzählt mit wenig Offensichtlichkeiten und einer angenehmen Konsequenz, die Meilen von irgendeinem sozialkritischen Tatort-Quatsch, in dem immer schön alles aufgerollt und aufge-/erklärt werden muss, entfernt ist.
Eine große Überraschung für ein deutsches Thrillerdrama, selbst Roger Ebert war begeistert: www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-silence-2013
(aus einer Notiz zum Film von 2014)
Review by yungboijorge ★★★½

un thriller alemán del director de Dark que trata sobre la soledad, el duelo, la perversión y la culpa construido con unos personajes muy humanos
el relato se hace bastante ameno y deja un sabor agrio (no por ello malo)
Review by BrockLanders000 ★★★½

Been on my watchlist for a while (think it was a recommendation after watching Prisoners)
About 20 minutes in I was engrossed by how much it reminded me of Dark (best TV show of all time - Netflix). The similarities were blowing my mind.
Cinematography, themes, actresses, shots... EVERYTHING!
As I was going to tweet it I imdb’d it... The Silence is of course Baran bo Odar’s masterful work.
It plays out like a prototype for Dark in so many wonderful ways.
Loved it.
Review by Austin Bende ★★★½

A nice, dramatic thriller that looks at a heinous crime from all angles and all the people it affects. Sometimes it seems to grossly give sympathy to characters that in no way deserve it, which was a bit troubling. But with other characters it had a real heartfelt touch. Overall, not too bad.