Silence of the North (1981)

Directed by

Allan King

Genre

drama film

Country

Canada

Runtime

1h 34m

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 2 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A woman survives harsh conditions and personal loss while building a life in the Canadian wilderness. She marries twice and faces both tragedy and partnership.

earnestquietly intensebittersweetunderstatedmelancholicresilientintimateslow-boiling

What happens

Silence of the North is a 1981 semi-autobiographical Canadian film of author Olive Frederickson, taken from the book of the same name. The film stars Ellen Burstyn as Olive, Tom Skerritt as her first husband Walter Reamer who was killed, and Gordon Pinsent as her second husband John Frederickson. All three main actors were nominated for Genie Awards, as was the director, Allan King. Originally, the film was set to share the title of its country music theme song, "Comes a Time" performed by Lacy J. Dalton and composed by Neil Young, but at the last minute the title of the book was retained for the film. The film was a box office flop upon its original theatrical release, but a combination of the song winning an award and pay-TV service SelecTV picking it up 18 months later for its evening lineup, allowed the film to develop a cult following. Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin said in an interview that he worked as an extra in the film. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Your Ticket Is No Longer Valid (1981)
• Happy Memories (1981)
• Surfacing (1981)
• A Choice of Two (1981)
• Yesterday (1981)
• Melanie (1982)
• The High Country (1981)
• Suzanne (1980)