************SPOILERS AHEAD************
Since the title is Silent Youth, you wouldn't expect a lot of dialogue - and it is indeed scarce. But what dialogue there is, is well placed, significant, although often seemingly only touching on superficialities, and very authentic. The acting is superbly understated, nuanced, organic, and extremely believable. Especially Martin Bruchmann (Marlo) wowed me with his relaxed, openness and intensity.
What I like about this type of movie is the courage to portray characters that feel real and believable. This story with these characters could have happened in real life, just as depicted, no heightened reality, no "grand emotions", no suspense of disbelief, no McGuffins, no forced storytelling -- simply a love story that could have been.
To understand it, you have to pay attention to the minutiae of the budding relationship, beginning with a barely-there touching of their hands in passing. Each shy dart of the eyes, each (short) question and (even shorter) answer a shallow stepping stone in the right direction, towards each other, towards more intimacy. It's a very delicate process and one that could easily have been marred by the many obstacles it is confronted with: Kirill not calling at the expected time, the father driving them, Kirill going off on multiple mental tangents, throwing Marlo curve-ball after curve-ball.
It's really a testament to Marlo's insistence and emotional stability that this chance encounter bears any fruit at all. And it is thanks to his sensitivity that the psychologically self-destructive bender Kirill falls victim to in the last scene doesn't explode right in their faces - with potentially disastrous consequences.
It was very moving to see how Marlo was able to give Kirill a clear signal to stop when he went off the lid and doing so with a minimum of anger or aggression, keeping the door open for another way to interact/communicate (which Kirill took), and subsequently reigning him in with compassion, empathy, and tenderness.
I got a hint of a "survivor" vibe off of Kirill. He is obviously a victim of violence and also frequently manipulated by others (girlfriend, girlfriend's father) but he could even be a victim of sexual abuse. He did, as far as I remember, not answer the return question, whether he had been with a man before, and by not denying it, implying that he had. His line "You seem to be the kind of person that follows people around" seems to underpin this. So maybe he expected to be sexually exploited because that's how same sex hook-ups had turned out for him in the past.
I get the ending, shown as a kind of epilogue, and I liked it because, again, it was very understated while at the same time telling volumes about their journey. But it would have been even more satisfying to see how these two would be doing after, say, a month or two. But that's material for another movie, I guess.
An alternate titel could be "Lost and Found", that's the overall feeling this movie left me with.
Since the title is Silent Youth, you wouldn't expect a lot of dialogue - and it is indeed scarce. But what dialogue there is, is well placed, significant, although often seemingly only touching on superficialities, and very authentic. The acting is superbly understated, nuanced, organic, and extremely believable. Especially Martin Bruchmann (Marlo) wowed me with his relaxed, openness and intensity.
What I like about this type of movie is the courage to portray characters that feel real and believable. This story with these characters could have happened in real life, just as depicted, no heightened reality, no "grand emotions", no suspense of disbelief, no McGuffins, no forced storytelling -- simply a love story that could have been.
To understand it, you have to pay attention to the minutiae of the budding relationship, beginning with a barely-there touching of their hands in passing. Each shy dart of the eyes, each (short) question and (even shorter) answer a shallow stepping stone in the right direction, towards each other, towards more intimacy. It's a very delicate process and one that could easily have been marred by the many obstacles it is confronted with: Kirill not calling at the expected time, the father driving them, Kirill going off on multiple mental tangents, throwing Marlo curve-ball after curve-ball.
It's really a testament to Marlo's insistence and emotional stability that this chance encounter bears any fruit at all. And it is thanks to his sensitivity that the psychologically self-destructive bender Kirill falls victim to in the last scene doesn't explode right in their faces - with potentially disastrous consequences.
It was very moving to see how Marlo was able to give Kirill a clear signal to stop when he went off the lid and doing so with a minimum of anger or aggression, keeping the door open for another way to interact/communicate (which Kirill took), and subsequently reigning him in with compassion, empathy, and tenderness.
I got a hint of a "survivor" vibe off of Kirill. He is obviously a victim of violence and also frequently manipulated by others (girlfriend, girlfriend's father) but he could even be a victim of sexual abuse. He did, as far as I remember, not answer the return question, whether he had been with a man before, and by not denying it, implying that he had. His line "You seem to be the kind of person that follows people around" seems to underpin this. So maybe he expected to be sexually exploited because that's how same sex hook-ups had turned out for him in the past.
I get the ending, shown as a kind of epilogue, and I liked it because, again, it was very understated while at the same time telling volumes about their journey. But it would have been even more satisfying to see how these two would be doing after, say, a month or two. But that's material for another movie, I guess.
An alternate titel could be "Lost and Found", that's the overall feeling this movie left me with.
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