The thriller “House of Silence” by director and actress Simone Geißler, which UCM.ONE is distributing worldwide on the arthouse label Artkeim², won the prizes for Best First Time Director and Best Actress at the Milan Independent Awards in January 2024.
The award honours the achievements of Simone Geißler, both as an author and director, as well as an actress, who in her committed feature film debut deals with the highly relevant topic of violence against women and their physical processing by the victims using the means of genre film.
Prior to this, Simone Geißler had already won the prize for Best Actress Feature Film at the Stockholm City Festival.
In “House of Silence“, the story of the main character Sorel is told in an atypical way. Viewers are immersed in Sorel’s perspective and experience from her point of view how she deals with unresolved traumas. The narrative shows the consequences of enduring physical and psychological violence. The film is intended to serve as an impetus for change and help.
Comments about the movie
“I am very impressed! Instead of just using the usual clichés, Simone Geißler has really dared to do something. At first, the film struck me as a psychological thriller that plays with common expectations and varies the arc of suspense well, with dream and reality merging more and more. So far so good. In my reading, however, the film neither wants to dwell on the level of a TV thriller nor be a cheap revenge fantasy about injustice suffered. I have had to experience the extent to which experiences of violence, especially rape and sexual abuse, can destroy a person’s life and also have an impact on relationships with other people several times in contact with those directly affected. And it’s not just because I studied psychology that I know that victims can later become perpetrators themselves. Some of them can’t get back on a “green branch” even with professional support. In this respect, Simone has consistently thought through a life situation or a development to its logical conclusion on film. Neither as documentary reality nor as irrational delusions, but as a kind of vision – as indicated by the reflections on the left-hand side of the picture in a central scene. I can only hope that others see it the same way. I was fully engaged in the development of the main character, who increasingly loses the ground under her feet due to her experiences and adventures. For me, that’s the essence of the film on the subject of experiences of violence and trauma, and it came across very well.” (Holger Twele, film journalist, member of the Association of German Film Critics; source: BABU Film UG)
“House of Silence ends up being a lot louder than the title suggests, and that takes a lot of cinematic courage. Everyone involved in the film had this courage, and that makes the film all the more an important cinematic experience. The acting power that Simone Geißler unleashes here in her own film is tremendous and gives the taboo subject of ‘violence against women’ a face. A violence that flows through every scene of the film like an insidious poison and then, in an unexpected plot twist, poisons everyone equally – perpetrators and victims alike.” (Ben Scharf, producer, writer, director; source: BABU Film UG)
More information about the movie: House of Silence
More information about the film label: Artkeim²
