Silence is a movie that’s gotten a lot of buzz in the media leading up to its release. A film by Martin Scorsese—director of Shutter Island, Gangs of New York, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Goodfellas—Silence is the tale of two Jesuit priests and their faith in the 17th century. Played by Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver, the priests travel to Japan to locate their missing mentor and spread the gospel of Christianity, all while under the threat of extreme violence.

There’s a couple reasons why this film is creating some buzz, and one of them is most certainly the creative accolades behind it. Based off of Shūsaku Endō’s novel by the same name, Martin Scorsese brings with him a long tradition of award-winning complex narratives, and Silence looks ready to do the same. Liam Neeson—who plays the lost priest, Ferreira—also brings star power to the stage. Best known for his roles as Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace, Ducard in Batman Begins and Oscar Schindler in Schindler’s List, Neeson is joined by the younger, but still acclaimed Garfield and Driver: Marvel’s newest Spiderman and The Force Awakens’ Kylo Ren: a role that Driver will be reprising in Episode VIII: The Last Jedi on December 15th, 2017.

Another reason why Silence is generating a bit of talk can probably be attributed attributed to the coincidental timing of it. Although the film has been in production since 1988—Scorsese has described it as his “passion project”—its subject matter (the persecution of religious minorities based on isolationist tendencies) chimes with certain political realities happening south of the border. Hollywood has a long history of using film and film-related events to speak out against regime-overreaches—Meryl Streep’s Golden Globe acceptance speech is the latest, most visible example of this. Silence also explicitly deals with the clash between religion and regimes, and seems to follow this trend. But while I think it would be unfair to Scorsese to say that this was the intent of his long-running project—a project steeped in history and personal interest—it will be curious to see how current realities will impact the audience’s perception of the film.

~ Shianne Edelmayer is a freelance illustrator and writer based in Nelson BC.