Silent Summer

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Kristine, a smart and charming art historian in her ‘best years’, suddenly loses her voice after meeting her estranged husband Herbert at an art auction. She retreats to their joint holiday cottage in the south of France, where she hasn’t been for a while, only to find her daughter Anna in bed with the local lover Franck, both of whom are a little less surprised by Kristine’s arrival, despite the bad timing. Still speechless but rather laid back, Kristine listens to her daughter’s confession about some failed university exams and her consequently retreating to the family resort.

The small village community of locals and a few German Francophiles are surprised to see Kristine after such a long time but her muteness does not really seem to bother them. Just the opposite, Kristine seems the perfect, silent audience for their need to talk. Kristine gives herself to their need to speak as well as to Franck’s erotic signals. The arrival of her husband Herbert strangely marks the end of Kristine’s floating through the French summer. The re-united ‘family’ does not quite harmonize with each other and it becomes clear that their marriage has a dark spot that started here way back. Kristine and Herbert have to face up to something that happened here a long time ago. Something that has not been uttered and something about which both of them have their very own perspective.

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