Das letzte Schweigen 2010

A.O. Scott, New York Times: [Mr. Odar uses] graceful wide-screen compositions and haunting sound design to create a compelling mood of menace, anxiety and sorrow. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A story of obsession, of the permanence of loss, of how deeds of the past haunt us, closing over our heads like water. It leaves you shivering, yet thrilled; waiting anxiously for this talented new filmmaker's next work. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: What had seemed like a lackluster ensemble piece turns out to be an exercise in empathy ... Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: "The Silence" is a victim of over-plotting, clunky narrative, gratuitous stylization, and too many points of view. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Nicely paced but rotely characterized. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Twisted, sad and undeniably disturbing, "The Silence" is a study in the sick ways of men. Read more

Karsten Kastelan, Hollywood Reporter: Swiss-born director Baran bo Odar's second feature film is a finely crafted psychological drama that uses a brutal crime to delve into the depths of human misery. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: "The Silence" is an exemplary German-language thriller, a complex and disturbing examination of guilt, violence and psychological torment that chills us to the core not once but two times over. Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: The most rewarding element in the picture is the performance of the first girl's mother by Katrin Sass, who gives us quietly and darkly what it is like to live with the memory of your child's murder. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A clear-eyed look at the hole that a death leaves behind, and the many awkward and always insufficient ways we try to fill it. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: The Silence, an assured first feature from Swiss-born director Baran Bo Odar, has more on its mind than most crime thrillers. Read more

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: These are our modern tearjerkers, embellished with sexual violence to maintain the audience's sense of its own sophistication. Include me out. Read more

Jim Emerson, Chicago Sun-Times: The mysteries here are larger, deeper, more ineffable than the purely practical concerns of crime-solving: motive, means and opportunity. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: "The Silence" is more like an intriguing work of misdirection than a great crime film, but it has a dreamlike and disturbing undertow you won't soon forget, and Odar is unquestionably a director to watch. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "The Silence" is framed as a multi-character police procedural, but like "Mystic River" and "Zodiac," its inquiries probe deeper and darker. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Its measured pacing whispers art while its lurid subject matter screams commerce. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: The Silence speaks volumes. Read more

Chuck Wilson, Village Voice: Making his feature debut, Swiss-born writer/director Baran bo Odar has turned Jan Costin Wagner's 2007 novel The Silence into a taut, beautifully acted thriller. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: This is film noir at its noirest. Read more