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Stellet Licht (Silent Light) is a film that portrays Mennonite life in its natural state.
The winner of the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and five other notable awards worldwide, Stellet Licht is being offered to local residents June 27-July 3 at Princess Cinema in Waterloo.
“[This] is a beautiful movie with some of the most impacting images in cinema, with precious movements and a very precise and amazing way to film: more old school, more natural,” said art director Nohemi Gonzalez via e-mail from Mexico City.
Set in a conservative community in Chihuahua, Mexico, the story follows a married man, Johan, who falls in love with a single woman and has an affair. Although his wife stands by his side, Johan is riddled with guilt over his betrayal of God.
“The film is an emotional story about love and deceit,” Gonzalez said. “In this story the director questions about the possibility to be truly in love with two people at the same time in a very sensitive way far away than the traditional vision.”
Director Carlos Reygadas – who is currently working on a new project in the Mexican jungle – had visited Chihuahua several times over the years and was intrigued by the Mennonite culture. He eventually wrote the script in order to depict a traditional storyline in a context that is unfamiliar to the majority of audiences, Gonzalez explained.
By employing people already living in the area rather than actors, Reygadas was able to shed light on the true Mennonite lifestyle.
“All of them [actors] have other careers and spend their time very far away from the movies. But speaking about the three main characters, Cornelio Wall (the man) is from Chihuahua, Mexico, and some members of his family participated in the movie too; Maria Pankratz (the other woman) is from Kazakhstan and only came to Mexico for the movie … and Miriam Toews is a wonderful writer from Winnipeg, Canada. … The others (extras too) were from the fields (Mennonites) but [they] were very difficult [to] involve in this project because all of [their] ideas about the media and the modern life in general.”
The film has been both praised and criticized for its long sequences and pauses, filmed with natural light and anamorphic lenses from the 1970s. Reygadas is known for this technique that allows viewers time to reflect on the events that have happened.
Gonzalez said the crew of 11 took advantage of the landscape’s natural beauty during filming, which took more than four months to obtain the required images.
The natural feel of the piece was further enhanced by the characters’ use of their local Low-German dialect, Plautdietsch.
Although this made things challenging for the English- and Spanish-speaking crew at times, it was worth the effort to achieve the desired effect.
“I think [this] is a very good decision because when you look [at] movies which happened in the Holocaust in Germany and you listen in English, it’s like more fictional than you ever want, I think: [it] is not natural.”
Since the film was released in October 2007, its cast and crew have picked up 23 awards, most notably Best Film at Cannes.
“It was very exciting. … The expectation was very high, and at the end we are very happy for this. I think Cannes [is] one of the most respected festivals and I’m very proud to be in the official competition and win this award with the movie,” Gonzalez said.