THE QUIET ROOM

Many films pretend to show the world through the eyes of a child – but how many really do? Audaciously representing the thought processes, limits, imagination, and logic of a seven-year-old, Rolf de Heer ventures into an entirely new dimension, where we've all been before. Trying to make sense of what she sees, a nameless child perceives the tension of her parents' marriage. She deosn't speak; talking aloud only causes problems, but the viewer is privy to her anxieties, dreams, longings, and anguish at failing to be as happy as she was in her innocent youth (when she was three). And as the conjugal bonds between her mother and her father fall apart, the girl's mind strives to comprehend why their behavior is so silly, so irrational . . . so much like little children. Viewers who remember de Heer's uncompromiseing “Bad Boy Bubby” (19th CIFF, 1995), may be apprehensive at the idea of another does of this filmmaker's vision, but there is nothing here to cause offense, only fascination and enlightenment. More than one commentator has recommended THE QUIET ROOM to any new or prospective parents.- Charles Cassady