Underplayed Gems

Silent Sonata (2011)

Silent Sonata poster
Original title
Circus Fantasticus
Directed by
Janez Burger
Genre
drama film, war film
Country
Slovenia
Runtime
1h 17m
Rated
U
Rating
7.0 of 10 from 7 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A family hiding in a remote house during a war is disrupted when a circus troupe arrives. The film has no spoken dialogue and follows the clash between survival and spectacle.

wordlessbleakslow-burnvisually starkintensemelancholicdreamlikewar-torn

What happens

Silent Sonata (Slovene: Circus Fantasticus) is a 2011 Slovenian war drama film directed by Janez Burger and has no dialogue. The main producers are the Slovene Stara Gara and the Irish Fastnet Films. Silent Sonata is the first official Slovene-Irish-Swedish-Finnish co-production and was shot in 35 days in Slovenia and Ireland. The world premiere took place on the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2011. The production crew included members from at least 18 countries. The film's original title was Circus Fantasticus, but only in Slovenia, as it is distributed under its original title. The film was selected as the Slovenian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards, however, the Society of Slovene filmmakers (Društvo slovenskih filmskih ustvarjalcev, DSFU) neglected to officially submit the entry in time because of a misunderstanding within the organization, so it wasn't included in the final list of entries. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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