Finland's deadliest postal service: delivering corpses home while the living fall apart.
A drama between people under unconventional circumstances. In the Second World War Finland was the only nation who brought casualties killed-in-action back to be buried at home. These actions were carried out by men and women working in assembly centres near enemy lines. Silence is a story of a group of people in a limbo between life and death, in a mental no-man's- land, where heaven and hell, horror and joy, love and fear touch each other.
Acting
Saartamo's thousand-yard stare could stop a tank.
Cinematography
Bleached Finnish landscapes that feel like purgatory itself.
Director
Sakari Kirjavainen
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Finland's 'heroes' graves' policy was unique—no other nation retrieved fallen soldiers from active fronts. The film interrogates whether this national pride became psychological torture for the retrieval teams.
Director Kirjavainen based the script on his grandfather's unspoken wartime service in a body retrieval unit; the film's silence was literally inherited trauma.
FI
