The Music of Silence

Francis of Assisi

September 1966 •Italian

A 1966 biopic of Francis of Assisi presents him as a troubled rebel and champion of radical brotherhood, reflecting the spirit of 1968 student protests. Praised and condemned, the film sparked controversy for its bold, dissenting portrayal of faith.

Goya in Bordeaux

September 1999 •Spanish

Francisco Goya (1746-1828), deaf and ill, lives the last years of his life in voluntary exile in Bordeaux, a Liberal protesting the oppressive rule of Ferdinand VII. He's living with his much younger wife Leocadia and their daughter Rosario. He continues to paint at night, and in flashbacks stirred by conversations with his daughter, by awful headaches, and by the befuddlement of age, he relives key times in his life.

Testimony

November 1988 •English

The story of the great Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) and his life and career during the rule of Stalin.

Abuse

April 1983 •English

Brutally abused by his parents, teenage Thomas finds comfort in associating with a film director who is making a documentary about physical child abuse. The two fall in love, and the elder is faced with the decision of either running away with Thomas or focusing on his career and thereby letting the boy possibly be beaten to death.

El piano mudo

June 2010 •Spanish

A biographical film about the Tucumán pianist Miguel Ángel Estrella, which focuses on his imprisonment in a Uruguayan prison during the last military dictatorship.

Giuseppe Verdi

December 1953 •Italian

The life and loves of great composer Giuseppe Verdi are played against a background of the great operas of the 19th Century. A tender love story of his successful and turbulent life, with more than 20 excerpts from his acclaimed operas.

Devil's Knot

May 2013 •English

The savage murders of three young children sparks a controversial trial of three teenagers accused of killing the kids as part of a satanic ritual.

Françoise Dolto, for the love of children

September 2008 •French

After the Second World War, Claude, son of communist resistance fighters, whose mother died in Auschwitz, and Ben, child of a prostitute and a Jew, face the demons that haunt them with the help of Françoise Dolto.

The Wind Rises

July 2013 •Japanese

A lifelong love of flight inspires Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose storied career includes the creation of the A-6M World War II fighter plane.

Champions

April 1984 •English

The true story of jockey Bob Champion who overcame cancer to win the 1981 Grand National

St. Giuseppe Moscati: Doctor to the Poor

September 2007 •Italian

Giuseppe Moscati, Doctor saint of Naples, was a doctor of the early twentieth century, from an aristocratic family devoted his career to serving the poor. The film focuses on the human side, partially leaving aside the spiritual part.

Mother

November 1991 •French

Henri Verneuil was born Achod Malakian of Armenian parentage on October 15, 1920, in Rodosto, Turkey, and his family fled to France and settled in Marseilles when he was a young child. He later recounted his childhood experience in the novel Mayrig, which he dedicated to his mother and made into this 1991 film with the same name.

Anatomy of a Lost Sound

August 2025 •Czech

Anatomy of a Lost Sound traces the life of an incendiary sound, the space it conjured—a paramilitary youth camp, one of many metastasizing across Central and Eastern Europe, and the enigmatic figure most indelibly marked by it, Zulfikar Veritić. This hybrid work offers a brief biography of the sound and the figures who fueled its ascent and spread.

Second Serve

January 1986 •English

Fact-based story about tennis pro Renee Richards, whose player status was challenged in 1976 when it was revealed that she was a trans woman. Flashback to 1964 before she was out as trans, a successful New York doctor with a great lifestyle, a flashy girl friend, and a secret life. Her psychiatrist mother refuses to deal with her and sends her to a colleague who diagnoses with a psychotic gender confusion, which he says can be unlearned. After a failed marriage and parenthood, she comes out as trans, with a new life in California.

Soegija

June 2012 •Indonesian

This movie follows the story of Dutch East Indies' (now Indonesia) first indigenous bishop, Albertus Soegijapranata SJ, from his inauguration until the end of Indonesia's independence war (1940-1949).

Life Is Not a Fairytale: The Fantasia Barrino Story

August 2006 •English

A single mother’s American Idol audition helps her rise above a history of poverty, sexual abuse, and illiteracy to achieve national prominence.

Hostage

May 1983 •English

Set in 1980's Australia, this is the true story of a woman whose husband eventually reveals to her that he is an active member of the Nazi party. A real nightmare begins for her.

F-E-D-A

March 1990 •Swedish

Lev Tolstoy

October 1984 •Russian

The film consists of two parts: “Insomnia” and “Departure”. We shall meet Lev Tolstoy in the final years of his life at Yasnaya Polyana. We shall see him surrounded by his family, friends, acquaintances and absolute strangers who were coming to the great man and artist from all over the world. We shall hear “the voice of his thoughts”. In his sleepless nights, we shall follow his memory of the happy youthful years and the crucial, hard ones. We shall witness Tolstoy’s tragic departure from Yasnaya Polyana and his death at an obscure little station of Astapovo.

The Black Belt - The True History of Fernando Tererê

October 2022 •Portuguese

Five-time Jiu-jitsu world champion, Tererê won almost every battle he faced on the tatami mats, but it was far from them that he suffered his worst defeat.