Broken Silence (1995 film)
[2][1][3] The Carthusian monk Fried Adelphi has spent 25 years in the Swiss charterhouse La Valsainte, keeping his vow of silence and meditation, when his prior instructs him to go and seek the owner of their monastery, in order to extend an expiring 100-year lease.Released from his vow of silence, Fried starts his journey and experiences the culture shock to be expected already in the plane: he loses his wallet, which his seat neighbor, Ashaela, an African American drummer from New York, silently takes.[citation needed] Broken Silence was released with eleven copies in German cinemas and within a year garnered some 160,000 spectators.Wolfgang Panzer succeeds the unexpected: almost from behind this monk starts along with his awkward intolerability, his stalwart adherence to his commandments and rituals, to grow the audience at the heart with his childish piety and his astonished awakening to the world."[4] "A little-known gem of Swiss cinema, Broken Silence is one of those films that one won't forget- as long as the spectator accepts a few implausible plot points and the quality of the image, shot on video for lack of budget.