A family struggles with the devastating fallout when a long-held secret is finally revealed in Un Silence, the latest from Belgian filmmaker Joachim Lafosse.
From the start there is an air of tension within the Schaar family dynamic. Aging husband and father François (Daniel Auteuil) is a reputable lawyer approaching a crucial point in his years-long, high profile child abuse case in which he represents the victims. Day and night, reporters wait outside his grandiose home hoping to snap a photo and catch his latest remarks. At first, we assume this is the source of tension within the family unit, since living under this constant stress and the eyes of the media would undoubtedly be exhausting for all.
Indeed, it appears to us that it has taken a toll on the family. François’ wife, Astrid (Emmanuelle Devos) is quiet and tends to operate on a schedule that largely skirts around her husband, and their teenage son Raphael (Matthieu Galoux) largely spends his time out with friends or in his room.
However, pretty quickly we come to realize something else is amiss. The couple’s adult daughter refuses to visit her family home and avoids bringing her own young child to see them, and then she mentions to Astrid the return of a figure from the family’s past who threatens to uproot the careful equilibrium of the household.
Throughout the film, we’re waiting to discover the truth of the dark secret in its entirety. We think we’ve pieced it together early on, only to eventually realize the truth and its ramifications are far worse than we anticipated.
Although we foresee some aspects of the secret, the film is nevertheless effective at subverting our expectations with a narrative misdirection thrown in here and there. For example, the film starts in the present, planting in our minds certain ideas about what’s to come, and then reverts to the past, where it is then able to take us unawares as it shifts away from the presumed path.
The film starts and ends with the mother’s perspective, however there’s a wall maintained between her and the viewer so that we’re always kept slightly beyond reach of her authentic point of view. We glean some of her emotional response, but we’re never fully allowed “in.” This perhaps reflects the walls she has built for herself to cope with the situation, but it also creates a sense of distance that makes it difficult at times to connect with her character.
This detachment from Astrid is also sustained because the film pivots away from her and towards Raphael’s character through the middle section of the film. He starts somewhat on the periphery of the narrative but is soon brought into the thick of it, and the film eventually really digs into his character in some unexpected, but sharply considered, ways.
Despite the potential for heavy emotion as it tackles serious issues, Un Silence feels austere in its execution—although this reads as an intentional choice. The script is sharp but bleak, and we see the characters try to steel themselves against the impending fallout. However, their collective situation and their relationships with each another become more fraught until something—or someone—eventually has to break.
All of that said, excellent cinematography from Hensgens Jean-François and beautifully haunting music from Johann Johannsson and Olafur Arnalds inject needed emotional gravitas into the film.
Written by Lafosse, Chloé Duponchelle and Paul Ismaël, Un Silence is a stark look at the spider’s web of consequences borne from a family secret that protected the wrong people.
Un Silence has its world premiere at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival.
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