Courtney McGrailThe historical religious drama Silence has been screened at the Vatican. In the company of legendary director Martin Scorcese, some 400 priests and invited guests attended the screening at the Pontifical Oriental Institute for the Jesuits on November 29.
Based on the novel of the same name by Japanese author Shūsaku Endō, Silence follows the stories of two 17th-Century Portuguese Jesuits who undertake a perilous journey to Japan in search of their mentor, Fr Ferreira, played by Liam Neeson (Belfast’s Ciaran Hinds also stars).
The period was one in which Christianity was outlawed in feudal Japan, and the fates suffered by early converts are hinted at in the film’s trailer. (In preparing for the film, actors Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver joined Neeson for a week-long silent retreat at a Jesuit centre, St Beuno’s in Wales.)
Martin Scorcese reportedly read Silence in 1989 and immediately identified it as a story he had to render as a cinematic telling. In order to do so, the director had to face multiple challenges, including funding issues.
Fee
He subsequently announced that he was to waive his directing fee to make the film possible, while Neeson, Garfield and Driver worked for flat fees.
Speaking three years ago as he laid final plans to shoot the film, Scorcese said “Silence is just something I’m drawn to… It’s been an obsession, it has to be done and now is the time to do it. It’s a strong, wonderful true story, a thriller in a way, but it deals with those questions.”
Already tipped for Oscar glory, Silence is set for release in Ireland in the New Year.
The film trailer can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqrgxZLd_gE
To win one of three pairs of tickets to see Silence in Dublin’s Savoy cinema at 7pm on Tuesday, December 13, send an answer to the question “In what country in Silence set?” to info@irishcatholic.ie or The Irish Catholic, 23 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, by Friday, December 9.