Question of silence = De Stilte rond Christine M.

Lauded as one of the key feminist films of the period, ‘Question of silence’ was the first feature film by feminist Dutch filmmaker, Marlene Gorris. 3 women - a housewife, a secretary and a waitress - strangers united by their gender and the resultant oppression that ensues, and by the charge that they collaborated in the unmotivated murder of a male shop keeper. A female psychiatrist is entrusted with proving the women are not of sane mind, as the legal rationale is that they would have to have been insane, why else would they kill a man in an act of random violence? A question that is not asked when the gender roles of victim/offender are reversed. The psychiatrist is met by resistance in the women, silence in fact. One chooses not the speak, the other speaks too much, the third tells lies and half truths. It is only through this silence that the women are able to wield any power, something the psychiatrist begins to appreciate as she too becomes aware of the suffocation and suppression within her marriage and the male judicial system within which she works. Much has been made of the closing scenes, which have to be seen to be believed. Cast includes Cox Habbema, Nelly Fridja, Henriette Tol and Eddy Brugman. In Dutch with English subtitles.