Three women — a housewife named Christine M. (Edda Barends), a waitress named Ann Jongman (Nelly Frijda) and executive secretary Andrea Brouwer (Henriëtte Tol) — have murdered a male shopkeeper in the middle of the day for no reason. No premeditation. And none of them know one another. A female psychiatrist (Cox Habbema) must now discover why.
Directed by Marleen Gorris, who also made the Oscar-winning Antonio’s Line, this film takes us into the lives of each of the women as the doctor interviews each of them as well as the people in their lives, all to learn if this murder was thought through or was simply a random act.
The movie finally shows precisely how the woman led the man to his death without revealing the actual killing. But we do learn all of the negative experiences they’ve had with men throughout their lives and what would lead them to destroy a man, even castrating him and crushing his face. By the end, they laugh about the murder during their trial and their laughter is repeated by every woman in the room. To the credit of the director and her cast, this movie is still so potent more than forty years later.
The Cult Epics Blu-ray release of A Question of Silence has a new 2K HD transfer and restoration audio commentary by film scholar Patricia Pisters. It also features interviews with director Marleen Gorris and actress Cox Habbema, a promotional gallery, trailers and more. You can get it from MVD.