Speak No Evil
A chance encounter by the pool in the valleys of Tuscany while on holiday under the sun, Danish family Bjørn, Louise and their daughter Agnes and her stuffed rabbit Ninus meet German couple Patrick and Karin and their son Abel; initially seeming out of place and poorly matched, they form a friendship over food and wine and share contact details, the Danes later unexpectedly invited to spend a weekend in the Netherlands.
The journey by car and ferry long, the welcome is not what was expected, Agnes given a mat on the floor to sleep on, Patrick only cooking meat when he knows Louise is vegetarian, and Patrick’s clarification that he lied on their first meeting and is not in fact a doctor with Médecins Sans Frontières, Bjørn and Louise becoming apprehensive as they realise they do not know who these people are.
Speak No Evil directed by Christian Tafdrup from a script co-written with Mads Tafdrup, Morten Burian and Sidsel Siem Koch are the uncomfortable guests and Fedja van Huêt and Karina Smulders the hosts who offer little accommodation, speaking mainly in their native language where previously they communicated in English, changing arrangements and provoking reactions, Patrick humiliating and berating Abel as he plays with Agnes.
Abel born with congenital aglossia, he is mute, and fearful of his parents he is sullen and refuses to communicate in other ways, understandable when Bjørn and Louise feel they have no option but to knowingly overstep and intervene to stop the bullying only for Karin to dismiss them and say they have “different values” as Patrick performs his infuriating act of practiced innocence.
Presenting not just of a clash between different points of view but of profoundly divergent and incompatible understandings of social norms, the boundaries are unclear and flexible; when Patrick offers beer and bonding, Bjørn accepts, but when triggered he expresses exactly the behaviours he criticises in Patrick, yet backs down to avoid confrontation when challenged, while Louise has been saying from the start they should just leave.
Conveying the frustration and embarrassment of the guests and the indifference and selfishness of the hosts, Speak No Evil is awkward viewing as it moves from menace to threat, but it is also frustrating, perhaps to also provoke a response from the viewer, frequently shot in spaces so dark it is difficult to discern what is happening, and leading to a reveal which is horrifying in emotional impact but does not withstand scrutiny, requiring the families to exist in a vacuum that they can be swallowed whole without being missed.
Speak No Evil is streaming on Shudder now
