The Great Silence

The Great Silence

Year: 2022

Runtime: 95 mins

Language: Danish

Director: Katrine Brocks

Drama

Alma leads a quiet, secluded life within a modern Catholic convent in Denmark, preparing to take her perpetual vows. Her older brother, Erik, unexpectedly arrives, struggling with alcoholism and depression. His presence forces Alma to confront a long-hidden family secret, challenging her faith and making her question her readiness to commit to a life of devotion. As the ceremony approaches, she grapples with doubt and uncertainty about her worthiness.

Bleak
Bleak ending
Emotionally heavy
High intensity
Steady pacing
Moderate complexity

Warning: spoilers below!

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Timeline & Setting – The Great Silence (2022)

Explore the full timeline and setting of The Great Silence (2022). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

1898

The story unfolds in 1898 on the American western frontier. A harsh winter amplifies lawlessness and scarcity, shaping the town’s social dynamics. The era’s rough justice and vigilante culture inform the choices characters make as they navigate greed, loyalty, and survival.

Location

Snow Hill, Tonopah

Snow Hill is a bleak frontier town buried under a brutal blizzard. The storm isolates residents, turning scarcity into a daily struggle for food and safety. The town becomes the arena where bounty killers, outlaws, and budding lawmen collide over power and survival.

❄️ Snowy frontier town 🧭 Isolated frontier town ⚖️ Law under pressure

Last Updated: October 01, 2025 at 10:00

Main Characters – The Great Silence (2022)

Meet the key characters of The Great Silence (2022), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Silence

A calculating, deadly avenger who uses provocations to force enemies into drawing first. He fights with a Mauser C96 and is driven by a personal code, even as the frontier’s greed and savagery circle around him.

🪙 Vengeful 🔫 Calculated 🧭 Strategic

Pauline

A woman entangled in the bounty wars, who becomes romantically involved with Silence while resisting Pollicut’s schemes. She fights to preserve her own safety and property, but is drawn into escalating violence and tragedy.

💞 Love interest 🏚️ Survivor 🛡️ Defiant

Henry Pollicut

A corrupt bounty hunter and banker who manipulates people and events to profit from the town’s misery. He treats others as tools to secure power and aims to use Pauline as leverage as part of his schemes.

💰 Greedy 🤝 Manipulative 🔒 Power-seeking

Loco

The ruthless outlaw who leads the bounty gang and embodies frontier brutality. He provokes Silence to a deadly showdown and dispenses brutal justice without hesitation.

⚔️ Ruthless 🏹 Aggressive 🔫 Hunter

Gideon Burnett

The newly elected, earnest sheriff who tries to keep order but is out of his depth in a blizzard-haunted town overrun by greed and bravado.

👮 Lawman 🧭 Well-meaning ⚖️ Strained

Last Updated: October 01, 2025 at 10:00

Major Themes – The Great Silence (2022)

Explore the central themes of The Great Silence (2022), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

🪙 Greed vs Mercy

Bounty hunting and profit motives drive characters to betray, manipulate, and kill. Pollicut and his gang exploit poverty to enrich themselves, treating people as means to an end. Silence’s personal code is tested against the town’s pervasive hunger for wealth, questioning whether mercy can prevail in a world ruled by greed.

⚖️ Law vs Outlaw

Formal authority clashes with vigilante justice in a town frayed by winter and crime. Sheriff Burnett embodies earnest, but imperfect, law enforcement amid tactics that blur ethical lines. The struggle asks if law can restrain violence when greed motivates both sides.

❄️ Survival & Isolation

The blizzard magnifies every choice, turning scarcity into brutal tests of loyalty and courage. Resources are scarce, and alliances shift under pressure. Characters must decide what they’re willing to become when help is distant and the cold is an ever-present force.

Last Updated: October 01, 2025 at 10:00

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Explore Movie Threads

Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.

Movies about crisis of faith like The Great Silence

Stories where personal belief is tested by internal and external turmoil.If you liked the intense personal struggle in The Great Silence, explore more movies about crisis of faith. These films focus on characters questioning their beliefs, facing dark secrets, and dealing with the heavy emotional weight of devotion and doubt in similar dramatic settings.

melancholicoppressivetensesadcontemplativegrim

Narrative Summary

Narratives in this thread typically follow a protagonist deeply embedded in a system of belief—be it a convent, monastery, or a personal calling—whose commitment is shattered by a traumatic revelation or an encounter with a troubled past. The central conflict is internal, a quiet but intense battle between duty and desire, certainty and doubt.

Why These Movies?

These films are grouped together because they share a core thematic focus on the collapse of spiritual certainty. They create an oppressive, melancholic mood through steady pacing and high emotional weight, often culminating in bleak or ambiguous endings that reflect the unresolved nature of the protagonist's struggle.

Family secret dramas with heavy tone like The Great Silence

Emotionally brutal stories where long-buried family trauma resurfaces.Fans of The Great Silence will find similar heavy emotional journeys in these movies about oppressive family secrets. Discover dramas where a secluded life is shattered by the return of a troubled relative, unearthing hidden trauma and leading to a bleak, tense atmosphere.

tensesadgrimhopelessbrutalmelancholicoppressive

Narrative Summary

The narrative pattern involves a protagonist living an isolated or orderly life, which is violently intruded upon by a family figure from their past. This intrusion acts as a catalyst, unearthing a suppressed secret that challenges the protagonist's identity and current path, resulting in a steady, inevitable progression towards a tragic or deeply sad resolution.

Why These Movies?

Movies in this thread share a specific structural pattern: an isolated protagonist, a disruptive familial return, and the revelation of a dark secret. They are united by a consistently bleak tone, high emotional weight, and a steady pacing that builds a sense of grim, unavoidable fate.

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The Great Silence Summary

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The Great Silence Summary

The Great Silence Timeline

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The Great Silence Timeline

The Great Silence Spoiler-Free Summary

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The Great Silence Spoiler-Free Summary

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