THE END OF SILENCE

By Rick Jackson

The End of Silence, which played last night at The Screening Room as part of the Kingston Canadian Film Festival, is a compelling love story. Written and directed by Anita Doren, it opens and closes with silence. The absence of dialogue speaks volumes and it allows us to make up our minds exactly where the story is going. Her ideas celebrate a mode of expression that is so abstract, the impact rejoices in subtlety over substance.

The two main characters are Darya, a Russian ballerina and Eddie, who was married but is now single. For Darya, coming to Toronto means freedom and access to everything, a testament to the capitalistic society she has entered. When she finds love which is, at first, obscured by flirting, it is her feelings underneath her shy exterior that brings out a sense of belonging to something more than just working as a ballerina. We learn that she doesn't find it interesting anymore, leaves her ballet company and proceeds to Pearson International Airport to go home. As she waits there, she reconsiders and stays in Toronto.

Despite not being able to understand English very well, she ends up living for five nights at a local motel. Her meeting with Eddie, who is sitting across the floor in a restaurant where he is reading a detective novel, is fortuitous but not altogether far-fetched. After all, this is a romance and it doesn't take long before the two of them begin to share something special. Their chemistry makes the entire film work from the time their eyes first meet. You want them to get together and we are not disappointed.

Darya's freedom to do what she wants becomes an adventure. She samples Canadian pizza, ice cream and, along the way, finds herself feeling something toward Eddie. We just don't know for sure and Doron's screenplay nicely lets them work things out as if they are acting impromptu instead of memorizing their lines.

When Darya throws away her slippers, she realizes she shouldn't be abandoning her career totally, and later goes back to retrieve them. Staying at Eddie's, she is able to understand how society over here works. She realizes she can't just give up everything just because she is tired of it, and comes to believe in the world of ballet once again because it's in her blood. It has become her life force and we are thrilled to see her back. There is a wonderful fantasy sequence where she dances on a polished floor all dressed up as a professional dancer she really aspires to be secretly in real-life.

Ekaterina Chtchelkanova is perfect as the innocent Darya, whose vulnerability and charm works on you from the moment you first see her, while John Tokatlidas gives a solid performance as a man who sees something in Darya and wants to see it develop. Having been through one marriage, he is careful not to go too fast.

In an excellent supporting role, singer/songwriter Sarah Harmer reluctantly accepts Darya into her sphere of things as the other woman, although she is no longer attached to Eddie, her ex. She even tries to help her get a job.

As for the title of the film, it suggests more than one thing: the world of Russian dance which has left her feel alone and helpless and where her own opinions have been stifled by communism, and Darya's mother whose silence on the other end of the phone means her family does not support her decision to stay in Canada.

As a symbol of communication, it means being able to have the freedom to question without any fear of any kind and speak out when you want to. It is Darya's relationship with Eddie that gives her the courage to get over this control over her and able to feel like a human being again. Her cry of despair over her mother in the bathroom sequence hurts because she hoped her mother would support her. The end of silence comes at a price, but because there is little dialogue here, one suspects there is still hope for reconciliation.

Watching Eddie and Darya together, it is not completely clear if it is going to work out, but it does give us an opportunity to visit them. Darya's dream of lifelong happiness is not shattered, while Eddie just exists as he always has. There is no pat ending just hope for the future, and this gives the film a resounding roar of approval as not just another Hollywood production where you want a happy ending. If you think about both characters, they are happy. We don't need to be reminded because their actions speak louder than any dialogue could.

Well paced, Doron's latest effort confirms there are still good movies about romance being made. The End of Silence is as triumphant as it is understanding and reflective. It is also the best film at the 2006 Kingston Canadian Film Festival, and one of the best of the year. Don't miss it.

March 11, 2006

Copyright 2006 Rick Jackson