When looking at Silence in the context of Song of Granite there is the essence of the familiar. Both are narrative features with clearly shared documentary DNA. Silence is not just defined as another Irish film, it is an arthouse film. This is a strong compliment. As a country we sometimes seem embarrassed to call our films arthouse films. It is like the art is a dirty word; it is only a film for God’s sake! But art is what it is.
Silence is about Eoghan (Eoghan Mac Giolla Bhride, as mentioned a co-writer on Song of Granite) a sound recordist living in Berlin who receives a job offer to record sound in rural landscapes away from urban areas of Ireland. Interestingly for a film titled Silence the film begins with Eoghan recording loud and bustling sounds in the busy city of Berlin and ends with him in a quiet house in the northwest of Ireland.
Silence
Importantly it is punctuated by snatches of conversations and songs, historical links to the past in danger of slipping away. The Ireland that Eoghan calls home is internal and personal, found in the stillness, not merely confined to the four walls he eventually finds himself in. When compared to Tim Robinson: Connemara, Silence is a step up. What elevates the latter is the dynamic, graceful and rhythmic editing by Tadhg O’Sullivan.
O’Sullivan is also the editor on Living in a Coded Land and the forthcoming Song of Granite. They are a formidable partnership (O’Sullivan is a gifted filmmaker in his own right; his documentary The Great Wall is one of the essential Irish documentaries of the last few years).