The Silence (2010)

THE SILENCE  (2010)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Baran bo Odar
    Sebastian Blomberg, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Katrin Sass,
    Burghart Klaussner, Ulrich Thomsen, Anna Lena Klenke
On July 8, 1986, a girl is raped and murdered. Her bicycle and belongings are dumped in a wheat field. Her body is dumped in a nearby lake. More than 20 years later, to the day, another girl goes missing, under what appear to be identical circumstances. The investigation that follows involves (among others) a retired cop who failed to solve the first murder, a colleague who's still at lose ends following the death of his wife, the mother of the original victim, and a witness to the original crime. It's a trip to the dark side for all of them, and if it's not always a model of narrative logic, maybe that's because its characters aren't perfect, either, their flawed perceptions and choices setting up a resolution that's as ironic as it is sobering. Nobody comes out of this unscathed.