Silent Land (Cicha ziemia)

Two platinum blond figures look over a pool at their rented holiday villa in Italy. Anna (Agnieszka Zilewska) and Adam (Dobromir Dymecki) call in the owner Giuseppe (Claudio Bigagli asking him to make repairs. After some prevarication he relents.

The Polish couple settle down for their holiday to be disturbed next morning by noises coming from the pool. A young, handsome, bare-chested man (Ibrahim Keshk) is at work. immediately he has the couple’s attention. Adam, possibly attracted, more likely jealous as the young man draws Anna’s gaze too. A short exchange between Anna and the builder about a hosepipe confirms that the man speaks only Italian and Arabic.

Some sunbathing and holiday sex later they are on their balcony when the builder trips and falls into the pool and is killed. The owner arrives with the police and after a short statement the pair are taken down to the station for a more detailed conversation. Here discrepancies in their account begin to crack their story.

This is a quite remarkable debut feature from Aga Woszczyńska (co-written with Piotr Litwin) using the death of the builder to pry open and peer into the world of Anna and Adam; an ostensibly happy and well-ordered one. They share a sense of entitlement and superiority when they are questioned by the local police about the matter.

But fissures open as Adam begins to have doubts and then guilt over the death, while Anna puffs up the positive role of her husband at the incident, despite the CCTV showing the contrary. Is this just to be mean or misplaced loyalty? Whichever Anna is cast as the bad egg, while Adam is racked by bad dreams and guilt. What becomes clear though is that the relationship had long ago gone stale and is now little more than a routine however much the try.

The performances are pitch perfect as a pair who know each other well, yet not able to get to the kernel of their failing marriage. As mentioned Anna fairs worst of all; seeing her as either arrogant or morally blind. Adam is pushed too far at one-point, lapsing, then regretting his action as the viewer is led into a sequence that misleads one way and another until the end.

The look and sound of the film are sublime with the bleaching sun of the day, contrasting with the shadows and sharper colours created by the use of artificial lighting at night.

It’s an engrossing psychological story that leaves gaps for the viewer to just observe the couple squabble. That can at times make it look stagey with the emphasis on space and relatively little dialogue.