HÔTEL SILENCE

At the age of 52 Jean is divorced and depressed. He decides to set off on a one-way journey of no return to a country destroyed by war. But nothing goes exactly as planned. His despair soon seems minor in the face of the fate of those who welcome him, clinging to the slightest hope of reconstruction. As he comes into contact with them, the urgency to end the war becomes less pressing, to the point where Jean gradually rediscovers the meaning of his existence.
The suburban 

• It is heartwarming to watch the central figure’s perspective on life change. (…) I interviewed producer Lea Pool who told me that like the book, the actual country where this took place in was not named for a reason. “When I wrote the script, for instance, there were not wars going on in Ukraine or Israel,” she said. “The story focuses on a place where war occurred and there is ceasefire. It is also a movie of hope.”
  The Suburban 

• “Hotel Silence,” which is described as a “deep dive into the feeling of loss,” stars Sébastien Ricard and Irène Jacob. It is based on the novel by Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir, which was translated into 21 languages. Pool’s credits include “Straight for the Heart,” “Emporte-moi” and “The Passion of Augustine.” (…) The film is an “ode to resilience, an ode to life.”
  Variety 

• By bringing to the screen a novel by Icelandic author Audur Ava Olafsdottir, director Léa Pool signs her most beautiful film since “Augustine’s Passion”, a sensitive and luminous drama about the reconstruction of the self. Hotel Silence is not a film about war. In this drama imbued with light and hope, the director of “Emporte-moi” and “La passion Augustine” is more interested in the process of reconstruction. The reconstruction of a wounded people. But also, in Jean’s case, the journey of a man who will slowly regain the taste for life after sinking into depression. The current context of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza makes the film even more relevant. Hôtel Silence is doing a useful job by reminding us that the suffering of these peoples will not magically end at the end of the conflicts and that reconstruction will be long and painful.
  Translated from French of the Journal de Montréal review 

Sudbury – September 2024