Silence(2016)
dir. Martin Scorsese
What does God's silence sound like?
Where to watch: Streaming on KanopyLetterboxd ↗
Two 17th-century Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan to find their missing mentor and continue his mission, only to be captured amid a brutal state campaign to eradicate Christianity. Adapted from Shusaku Endo's novel.
Why it’s here
Punk in staying inside the missionary's doubt rather than resolving it — apostasy here isn't simple failure, it's a real moral question the film refuses to answer for you. Pedagogical in showing how colonial-era evangelism collided with a society determined to survive it, at real human cost on both sides.
Where This Film Lives
- Setting
- Japan
Read Alongside
Books that share a topic, theme, or setting with this film.
Silence
Shusaku Endo
A Jesuit in Japan. God is silent. People are dying.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Barefoot Gen, Vol. 1: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima
Keiji Nakazawa
Hiroshima, drawn by a child who lived it.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Black Rain
Masuji Ibuse
Hiroshima's survivors. What the bomb left invisible.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Convenience Store Woman
Sayaka Murata
She loves her convenience store job. Society has a problem with that.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee
Four generations of Koreans in Japan. Never fully belonging.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Snow Country
Yasunari Kawabata
A snow country geisha. A man who cannot love her fully.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Haruki Murakami
A missing cat. A missing wife. Japan's buried history.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Blankets
Craig Thompson
The memoir that proved comics could break your heart.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST