Silent Souls
Shadow Distribution | Release Date: September 16, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisDec 22, 2011
A mystical masterpiece about a lonely man who helps a widower perform last rites for his wife, is an astonishing, haunting, sensual, lyrical, bleak and ultimately beautiful road-trip movie. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertDec 7, 2011
This profound and immensely touching film in only 75 perfect minutes achieves the profundity of an epic. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasOct 10, 2011
Silent Souls is a marvel. Fedorchenko's expressive powers and his visual prowess are astonishing, and though the film's conclusion is abrupt and confounding, it feels right. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 19, 2012
Silent Souls is a road movie, a guy movie, a treatise on burial customs in northern Russia. Mostly it's a sigh at the way entire cultures can slip away in the flow of time. It's lovely and slow and melancholic and short - 75 minutes, yet you feel you've been gone for an epoch or two. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubAlison WillmoreSep 14, 2011
While the pace and the dour, meditative tone of Silent Souls can sometimes verge on parodically arthouse-esque, the sincerity of the film's thoughts on loss and longing, on the burdens of grief, and on reawakened awareness of existence, is always painfully heartfelt. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderBen SachsDec 8, 2011
Rife with earthy details and poetic associations, the movie often advances like a daydream. Read full review
80
Time OutKeith UhlichSep 13, 2011
Even at a mere 75 minutes, Silent Souls is thrillingly dense and allusive, and the elegiac finale maintains the overall air of mystery while beautifully bringing all the disparate threads together. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChris CabinSep 12, 2011
Folklore, rituals, and the past weigh heavily on Silent Souls, which is somewhat endemic of films from Fedorchenko's home country of Russia. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisSep 15, 2011
Silent Souls is part folk tale, part lesson in letting go. In its quiet acceptance of the passing of time, this unusual film reminds us that to die is not always the same as to disappear. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. HobermanSep 13, 2011
Dour yet affirmative, this laconic, deliberately paced, beautifully shot movie seeks the archaic in the ordinary - and, though somewhat off-putting in its diffidence, largely succeeds. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungSep 13, 2011
Disquieting and unforgettable, like a good ghost story, this is a special film for special tastes whose admirers inhabit festivals and smaller niche markets. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 23, 2011
Much of the film is wordless, and apparently some of the Merjan ritualism is a concoction of the filmmakers. There's a trancelike quality to its best moments, but too much of it is artfully boring. Silent Souls is at the opposite extreme from Hollywood – it's all mood. Be careful what you wish for. Read full review
63
New York PostSara StewartSep 16, 2011
At a little over an hour, Silent Souls is hardly long, yet the camera's repeated focus on the wintry, gray country road they're traveling can feel somewhat ponderous -- like life itself, as one of the guys in the film might wryly point out. Read full review
60
Total FilmSimon KinnearJan 18, 2015
It’s a poetic elegy to a lost tribe that conjures up the Meryans’ secret lifestyle via surreal rituals and stunning widescreen visuals, although an over-explained voiceover and clunky symbolism sometimes weaken the spell. Read full review
50
VarietyLeslie FelperinSep 13, 2011
Beautifully assembled, but emotionally inert despite its focus on bereavement and love's endurance, Russian art film Silent Souls reps at the very least a significant step up for its helmer, Aleksei Fedorchenko. Read full review
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