Review of ‘Where Silence Passes’: Return, Leave or Stay

first opera of Sandra Romero, ‘Where the Silence Passes’ has some of the defects of observational cinema, in which sometimes the strict contemplation of events, without true dramatic conflict, takes precedence in the development of the story. But at the same time it is a film that solidly exposes a series of frictions and decisions within the same family: generational divergences or differences in the way of life in the city and in rural areas. The film is based on a previous short by the director with the same actors.

Its main character, in his thirties, must return to his hometown in the interior of Andalusia. The reasons for this return do not matter as much as what he finds in the place that is as familiar as it is strange, especially the disputes with his father, some reasons for resentment and his relationship with his disabled twin brother. The action takes place during Holy Week, a time of religiosity on the surface in the context described by the director. The dilemma is simple: the protagonist, anointed with considerable guilt, must decide between staying in the town, especially for the needs of his brother, or returning to the comfort zone that he has built elsewhere, away from those he cares about. that he wants but from whom he has wanted to escape.