It’s still early to speculate on contenders for next year’s top 10 film list, but the highly stylized and transcendental “Silent Light,” is the only truly essential film that I’ve seen so far this year.   

The film will begin a second run at Facets Multimedia (at 1517 W. Fullerton) this week.  The show times are Friday and Monday through Thursday at 6:30 and 9:00, and Saturday through Sunday at 1:30, 4:00, 6:30 and 9 pm. 

The film’s many ethereal images (such as a haunting shot of a white body bathed in white light and a luminous sunset) linger in the subconscious, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I first saw it a few months ago.  

It can’t be a coincidence that there was a retrospective of Reygadas’s work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  “Silent Light” works more like an unforgettable abstract painting or a haunting poem than a traditional film which just tries to tell a cut and dry story in a straight forward manner.  Its director was Carlos Reygadas was even quoted as saying, “So I really feel much closer to painting or music where narrative is not important.” 

Reygadas who also directed the promising“ Japon” and  erotic/sadistic/grotesque, “Battle in Heaven.”  Those films were also undeniably arty and mesmerizing, but they relied more on shock value than his newest work.    

“Silent Light” is a quantum leap forward for Reygadas, and with this film, he fills the void for a deep, spiritual film maker. The film proves that he is a worthy heir to the great religious film makers:  Igmar Bergman, Robert Bresson, and Carl Dreyer.  After coming home from “Silent Light,” I felt as if I had just returned from the best sermon/art exhibit ever. 

The movie’s almost alien setting adds immeasurably to its allure. The whole film takes place in a Mexican farming community that is run by strict, straight laced Mennonites. All the natives speak Plattdeutsch, an obscure Germanic language, and they look like they just stepped out of a different century (which could either be a good or a bad thing), but some of their attitudes are surprisingly modern. All of the parts in the film are played by Mennonite non-actors, and the film was shot at location, and all this helps create the film create its rare aura of authenticity. 

The film‘s deeply flawed and tortured protagonist,  Johan (played by Cornelio Wall Fehr), appears to be a dutiful father and loving husband, but  it turns out that he is smitten with Marianne (Maria Pankratz), a seemingly pious woman from his town.   

He still cares for his wife, Esther (played by Miriam Toews), and he can’t decide whether he should leave her for good. The couple also has children, and it’s certain that they will be permanently scarred if he makes the wrong choice. 

His friends give contrasting advice. One friend suggests that Johann’s new love may be “… founded in something sacred,” and the local preacher tells him “What’s happening to you is the work of the enemy.”  Finally his father suggests that the love is all in his mind and comes out of his deep “need to feel.” 

The controversial conclusion jarringly breaks with the rest of the film’s quasi-realistic tone.  It is open ended, and it insures that the film’s meaning will be debated for many years. Whether you accept the ending may depend upon whether you believe in the existence of the “irrational” or miracles.

In the end, the film displays the tragic consequences of adultery or being ruled by you passions, and it also may suggest that you shouldn’t always get what you want.  It might also imply that all experience or behavior-whether moral or immoral-- is sacred. But it also suggests that the possibility of redemption always exists. 

From a visual standpoint, the film is superb, and its spare story is masterfully told.  The way things are going in this creatively anemic cinematic summer, “Silent Light” may be the only must-see film of the season.