The Silence

Rafael Zen

Makhmalbaf got me by the sensorial aspect of his film: it's all colors, sounds, textures and soul. I'm very happy to see this kind of cinema being made - it's a cultural statement within a poetic vision, combining on screen and off screen efforts. Each scene shows a sense of aesthetic mind-through that made my eyes devour this trip to Iran's beautiful people.

Jason

If cinema is the artform most conducive to the metaphor of an artisanal assembly of building blocks, Makhmalbaf's THE SILENCE, a film about a young blind boy negotiating a world of both strife and of transitory beauty, profoundly exhibits how the world of discovery and of embodied experience involves the incorporation of fragments. Its acoustical world becomes a fertile labyrinth vouchsafing an ecstatic transport.

Mehdi Jahan

A very effusive portrayal of the surroundings of the lead blind protagonist,and it's people; d poetic visuals almost nudges us to think that we are seeing dis world thru d xtraordinary auditory reception of d kid thru which he perceives d world. D final few minutes accompanied by Beethoven's 5th symphony makes a finale which is a treat to d senses. At times tho the kid's permanent angelic expression did irritate me!

Esra Yılmaz

makhmalbaf movies have spell on me some part of me find his movies amazing but with weak stories other part of me thinks that he doesn't want to tell a perfectly detailed story he doesn't want that script,script is like a ghost just flies around in the movie meantime he dedicate himself to embroider it

Joel

The way Makhmalbaf is able to pull the viewer into a fuller awareness of each sensory experience is remarkable. It might be technically an experimental film but it's so tactile that it's fully accessable. A remarkably rich, poetic and moving humble little gem.

I.Camera

A rare film set in the markets and cotton fields of Tajikistan. Its poetic style is similar to Color of Pomegranates, but is less elaborate, with off-screen narration emphasizing a blind boy's reliance on the competing sounds for navigation. The narrative is only loosely structured, and feels like an incomplete series of conversations and Sufi symbols, with truth a mirror in the hands of God (yet broken into pieces).

Andrew Lang

Like a poem, this film awakens the senses. It slowly casts a spell and sets the stage for a wonderful final scene, where the boy conducts Beethoven. I will never forget the musician who plays the sounds of sheep, dogs, and horses.

esen özen

Muazzam! Yaşamı oluşturan her şey, -renkler, sesler, sessizlik, müzik, doğa, şiir, edebiyat, gerçekler ve hayaller-, muhteşem bir ahenk, sarsılmaz bir ölçü içinde eritilmiş ve adı Sükut olan harika bir film olmuş sanki.